Sierras Chicas (Sierra Chica), Capilla del Monte, Dolores District, Punilla Department, Córdoba Province, Argentinai

Regional Level Types
Sierras Chicas (Sierra Chica)	Mountain Range
Capilla del Monte	Municipality
Dolores District	District
Punilla Department	Department
Córdoba Province	Province
Argentina	Country

Pneumatolytic veins near granite.

Las Sierras Chicas is an Argentine mountain range, belonging to the Sierras de Córdoba, northwest of the City of Córdoba in the province of the same name and east of the Punilla Valley. The comechingones called this mountain range Viarava.

They extend about 250 km from the Chapel of Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Tegua, southeast of the town of Elena, to the south, to some low hills located northwest of the city of Deán Funes to the north. Towards the northeast, there is an undulating plain, and further north rise the mountains of Macha and the Sierras de Ambargasta, which extend to the south of the province of Santiago del Estero.

It differs from the Sierras Grandes or Altas Cumbres by its lower elevation: the highest hill in the Sierras Chicas is Uritorco, at 1,979 m s. n. m., east of Capilla del Monte; Another notable mountain is Cerro Pan de Azúcar (1,260 m), east of Cosquín.

The Sierras Chicas are in north-south disposition and decrease in height, being its maximum point the Cerro Uritorco of 1,979 m s. n. m .. Then, from north to south, the chains that compose it are: Sa. de Masa, Sa. of Copacabana, Sa. de los Pajarillos, to the east of these is Sa. de la Higuerita, Sa. from Cuniputo, Sa. from Perchel and then continuing to the south is the chain of the Sierras Chicas who gives the name to it, and to the east there are small Sierras, among them is: Sa. of Estefa, Sa. from Malagueño, Sa. from Ochoa, Sa. Girl, Sa. del Tala and Sa. de los Cóndores and culminates to the south with the Sa. from Las Peñas.

Of Precambrian origin, the Sierras Pampeanas (of which the Sierras de Córdoba are its extreme south) for millions of years were reduced to peneplains, but the Andean Tertiary orogeny rejuvenated them, raising some blocks and sinking others. The ridges located to the west, closer to the Andes, when receiving more thrust, were higher; on the contrary, the Sierras Chicas are located on the eastern limit of the Sierras Pampeanas and consequently their heights are modest.

Morphologically, this mountain range is characterized by the smooth sinuosity of its slopes, a smoothness that is only interrupted in the northern area where the Uritorco is located. As with almost all the other mountainous areas of the Pampas mountains, its eastern slopes are less steep than its western slopes.

The rivers that cross the Sierras Chicas coming from the eastern slopes of the Sierras Grandes do so through deep gorges, which is why they have been used for water reserves for the cities by means of dams, as is the case of the dams El Cajón, Mal Paso and La Quebrada, as well as for the generation of hydroelectric energy in the San Roque, Los Molinos, Cerro Pelado (Río Grande), Arroyo Corto, Ministro Pistarini (Río Tercero) and Piedras Moras dams. The Sierras Chicas are crossed by three antecedent rivers, that is, they were before the formation of the mountain chain, these are: Rio Anisacate, Los Molinos and Rio Primero or Suquia.

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References