Aguilera is located west of Lake Argentino and northeast of Peel Fjord in the southern Andes and erupted mainly dacites and pyroclastic tephra.

It consists of six volcanoes, from north to south these are Lautaro, Viedma, Aguilera, Reclus, Monte Burney and Cook;[9] only the first has clearly documented historical activity, in 1959–1960.

[16] Melts of subducted sediment and from the subducting slab give rise to the magmas of Aguilera and other volcanoes of the northern Austral Volcanic Zone,[18] but they are subsequently modified by interactions with the mantle wedge[19] and in the case of Aguilera, Lautaro and Viedma, further interaction takes place with the Paleozoic crust.

[24] Other volcanoes have left tephra deposits in the wider region, including Cerro Hudson, Monte Burney and Reclus.

[28] A tephra layer found at archeological sites around Lago Argentino and deposited there 4,091 - 4,566 years before present originated at Aguilera and probably disrupted local human communities.

[37] Its volume has been estimated to be between 3.6–9.5 cubic kilometres (0.86–2.28 cu mi),[36] larger than the 1991 eruption of Cerro Hudson,[37] reaching level 5 on the volcanic explosivity index.

On Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego apparently the eruption did not substantially impact human populations.

[40] Furthermore, a 3,600 years old sulfur dioxide-rich layer in ice cores from Talos Dome, Antarctica, may have been produced by the Aguilera eruption.

[25] Aguilera was the last major volcano in the Andes to be climbed, with the first successful attempt occurring in August 2014 by a group of Chilean climbers.