The volcanic field lies 22 miles (35 km) southwest of Las Cruces, and occupies about 4,661 square kilometers (1,800 sq mi) near the U.S. border with Mexico.

[1] The Potrillo volcanic field covers approximately 4,661 square kilometers (1,800 sq mi) of Doña Ana County.

The westernmost West Potrillo Field consists of more than 100 cinder cones, two maar volcanoes and associated flows that covers approximately 1,250 square kilometers (480 sq mi).

The central Aden–Afton field has a number of young flows, three cinder cones and three maar volcanoes, including Kilbourne Hole.

Aden is a well-preserved shield volcano that at one time had a lava lake, which later solidified and partially collapsed to the west.

[1][4] The central and eastern parts of the Potrillo volcanic field were erupted onto the La Mesa surface, which formed between 900 and 700 Ka.

[8] Rock samples collected in the northern part of the pyroclastic deposit of the Potrillo maar, and lava associated with a cinder cone yielded potassium–argon ages of approximately 1.29 and 1.18 million years.

The Potrillo volcanic field is part of the southern Rio Grande rift and illustrates the Cenozoic tectonic evolution of that structure.

This range exposes rocks of Permian to middle Miocene age and shows three significant deformation events:[10] Rift extension took place in an intense 30–20 Ma phase, involving low-angle normal faults, and a less intense post-10 Ma phase, involving high-angle normal faults.

[3] The current morphology of the Potrillo volcanic field consists of over 100 cinder cones, ranging in age from 1 million to 20,000 years old.

Slope angles of young cinder cones subject to mechanical weathering in an arid environment show a relationship with age.

Their characteristics show that they were little altered from their formation 1.6 to 1.8 billion years ago, other than some reheating during the opening of the Rio Grande rift.

[15] Middle crustal xenoliths are Oligocene (26–27 Ma) in age and suggest a large unexposed batholith underlying the volcanic field.

Metagabbro and amphibolite are notable scarce in the lower crustal xenoliths, suggesting that underplating has not taken place in this part of the rift.

Coyote Hill and the West Portillo mountains make up the western portion of the PVF, with regional velocities in this uplift ranging from 4.5 km/s to over 6.0 km/s at a depth of 2.5 km.