Tata Sabaya lies in a thinly populated region north of the Salar de Coipasa salt pan.

Debris from the collapse entered a lake that covered the Salar de Coipasa at that time and formed a deposit with a volume of 6 ± 1 cubic kilometre (1.44 ± 0.24 cu mi).

The top of these flows is cut by a collapse scar that extends east and west of the edifice in the form of scarps up to 50 metres (160 ft) high.

[12] Farther away of the edifice, the scarp is more noticeable and reaches a height of about 200 metres (660 ft) on the southeastern side of the volcano.

[14] The landslide incorporated material from the salar,[15] and its rocks reflect in part the layering and structure of the pre-collapse volcano.

[10] It consists of material that forms hummock-like deposits, with individual hummocks becoming smaller the farther away from the edifice they are.

[11] The deposit extends into the Salar de Coipasa where it is confined by faults[13] and is in part covered by lacustrine sediments such as tufa.

After an erosional hiatus during the Oligocene, volcanic arc activity increased during the Miocene and culminated in a phase of strong ignimbrite eruptions,[9] which originated in calderas.

[19] This basement is covered by younger volcanic rocks, alluvium and sediments of the Salar de Coipasa.

[17] Effusive eruptions then built up a volcanic cone on top of this shield; the five northerly lava flows were emplaced during this phase of activity.

Some lava flows from this stage were unstable and collapsed, covering the northern parts of the volcano with debris.

[12] Radiocarbon dating for a pyroclastic flow has yielded an age of 6,000 years before present, implying that the volcano may be still active.