It is part of a family of back-arc volcanoes in Patagonia, which formed from processes involving the collision of the Chile Ridge with the Peru–Chile Trench.

The vents often form local alignments along lineaments or faults, and there are a number of maars and other lakes, both volcanic and non-volcanic.

The volcanic field is noteworthy for the presence of large amounts of xenoliths[e] in its rocks and because the maar Potrok Aike is located here, where palaeoclimate data have been obtained.

The latest eruptions occurred during the Holocene, as indicated by the burial of archaeological artifacts; the Laguna Azul maar formed about 3,400 years before present.

Humans have lived in the region for thousands of years, and a number of archaeological sites such as the Fell Cave are located in the field.

[11] The cities of Rio Gallegos (Argentina) and Punta Arenas (Chile) lie northeast and southwest of Pali-Aike respectively.

[24] Among these volcanic necks are the Cuadrado, Domeyko, Gay and Philippi hills, which conspicuously stick out of the surrounding plains.

[29] Monogenetic volcanoes are emplaced on the lava plateau at elevations of 110–180 metres (360–590 ft) above sea level and include maars, tuff rings and scoria cones.

[1] The vent Cerro del Diablo, a pyroclastic cone, is the youngest volcano in the field and has emitted both ʻaʻā and pahoehoe lava,[32] which have a fresh appearance and no soil cover.

[14] Some of these are heavily eroded while the southeastern part of the field features fresh-looking centres,[22] where they form the "Basaltos del Diablo".

[36][37] Potrok Aike in comparison is much larger (crater diameter of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi)); its rim is barely recognizable and appears to be more akin to a maar.

Some of these water bodies dry up late in summer, allowing wind to remove sediments from their lakebeds, which thus become the origin of long dune fields.

[56] However, some older plateau lavas in the north formed in response to an earlier ridge subduction event in the Eocene and Palaeocene.

This collision originally occurred west of Tierra del Fuego, but has since moved northward towards the Taitao Peninsula.

[20] The Pali-Aike volcanic field is mainly made up of alkali basalt and basanite,[60] which form a sodium-rich alkaline suite;[61] nephelinite has been reported[60] and hawaiite is rare.

[62] The most important phenocrystic phase is olivine, which also appears as xenocrysts;[61] other minerals include clinopyroxene, diopside and plagioclase.

[63] Pali-Aike rocks typically feature ultramafic xenoliths containing augite, dunite, eclogite, garnet, harzburgite, lherzolite, peridotite, phlogopite, pyroxenite, spinel and wehrlites.

[66] The geochemistry of Pali-Aike rocks has been interpreted as originating from the melting of peridotite in the mantle along with fractionation of olivine and with residual garnet; there is no trace of geochemical influence of the adjacent Andean Volcanic Belt and the associated subduction zone.

[70] The basement beneath Pali-Aike contains the Magallanes Basin of Jurassic age,[20] which formed during the breakup of Gondwana and was later filled by volcanic and sedimentary rocks.

[73] Sedimentation ceased in the region 14 million years ago, probably because by that time the rain shadow of the Andes was effective in the area.

The last glaciation (Cabo Vírgenes, Río Ciaike and Telken VI-I) was less extensive but reached the Atlantic Ocean at times.

[73] The origin of oceanic-type magmas close to plate boundaries, which occur in other places of the world as well, is usually attributed to slab-dependent processes.

[20] The most important among these is the formation of slab windows (gaps in the downgoing plate which allow asthenosphere to ascend) when spreading ridges collide with subduction zones.

[76] The slab window generated by the Chile Ridge's subduction passed at the latitudes of Pali-Aike about 4.5 million years ago; volcanic activity commenced soon afterwards but the time difference was enough for any subduction-influenced mantle to be displaced by fresher mantle moving through the window, which is the main source of the Pali-Aike volcanic rocks.

[77] The large amounts of xenoliths and primitiveness[g] of the magmas suggest that once they had formed, they very quickly rose through the crust to the surface.

[1] Sediment cores from Laguna Azul give an approximate age of 3,400 years before present, suggesting that this vent formed during the late Holocene.

[83] The climate in the region is windy and cold, with mild winters owing to the oceanic influence, and dry, bordering on semi-desert with precipitation ranging between 300–150 millimetres per year (11.8–5.9 in/year).

[104] They left archaeological sites,[105] petroglyphs,[23] rock carvings[49][h] and stone tools behind;[108] even some ancient burials have been found.