The Bandelier Tuff was one of the first ignimbrites recognized in the geologic record, and has been extensively studied by geologists seeking to understand the processes involved in volcanic supereruptions.

This has produced a long-lived volcanic field, with the earliest eruptions beginning at least 13 million years ago[6] and continuing almost to the present day.

[8][9] The tuff contains up to 30% lithic fragments, which in the Otowi Member are estimated to have a total volume of 10 km3 and to be sufficient to quench welding through their cooling effect.

The La Cueva Member is an unwelded to poorly welded tuff with phenocrysts of quartz and sanidine and traces of pyroxene and magnetite.

[13] On the other hand, the presence of lithic breccia in this member in the La Cueva area suggests the caldera was located to the southwest.

The upper ignimbrite is a rhyolitic ash-flow tuff containing abundant phenocrysts of sanidine and quartz, and sparse mafic microphenocrysts.

[13] The total dense-rock equivalent volume of the eruption, including pyroclastic flows and ash fall, was between 216 cubic kilometers (52 cu mi) and 550 cubic kilometers (130 cu mi), with the larger estimate placing the eruption in the low end of the supereruption range (VEI 8).

[18] Distant isolated outcrops suggest that thin ash flows of the Otowi Member may have covered the Española and Santo Domingo basins.

[17] Ash matching the Otowi Member in age and chemistry has been found as far away as Mount Blanco, Texas, where it forms a bed 30 centimeters (12 in) thick.

[20] The Tshirege Member is described as a compound cooling unit, composed of distinct pulses of deposition, and two schemes have been developed to label its beds.

This is recognizable across the Pajarito Plateau but is interpreted by Broxton and Reneau as a devitrification front rather than a cooling unit boundary.

[20] Ash matching the Tsankawi Pumice in age and composition has been found as far away as Utah and may have reached western Canada.

[22] Much of the material in these deposits now forms the Pajarito Plateau, a scenic region of canyons and mesas on which Los Alamos is situated.

[15] In their 2011 map of the Valles Caldera, Fraser Goff and his coinvestigators formally added the La Cueva Member, informally known until then as the ignimbrite of San Diego Canyon, to the Bandelier Tuff.