Volcanoes of South America
The Andes, together with the volcanoes, has been produced by the movement of the Americas towards the west. This has been happening for a long time, certainly 60 million years or more. This continental drift leads to subduction of oceanic plates beneath the continental plates of the land mass. In turn, this produced the mountain ranges (orogeny) and the volcanic activity. A rather different cause is at work on the Galápagos Islands. There, a hotspot under the plate caused the islands and their volcanoes to rise up from the sea floor.