 The Western Cordillera features various climate zones, such as the quechua and suni zones.The vegetation that occurs at high altitudes is dominated by pioneer plants, with wetlands constituting additional centres of biodiversity.A thick pile of andesitic lava flows with additional scoria and which crops out on the southern, southeastern and southwestern side of the Ampato volcano is the oldest volcanic stage of this volcano, with argon-argon dating yielding ages between 400,000 - 450,000 years before present.