Its peak height is most recently given as 5,808 metres (19,055 ft) and it features a 1.3 kilometres (0.81 mi) wide summit crater.

Just west of Tocorpuri, the La Torta lava dome is a 200 metres (660 ft) high flat-topped structure.

The Tocorpuri volcanoes developed in the late Pleistocene in three separate stages and were subject to glaciation and tectonic faulting.

[10] There is evidence of a southeastward sector collapse of Tocorpuri,[10] which crops out on an area of 9 square kilometres (3.5 sq mi) on the southeastern flank within a horseshoe-shaped scar.

It is a flat-topped, about 200 metres (660 ft) high body with steep flanks that covers a surface of about 11 square kilometres (4.2 sq mi) in a flat area.

The total volume of these domes exceeds 40 cubic kilometres (9.6 cu mi),[32] of which Cerro Chao is by far the largest.

[35] Most of the region is covered by Tertiary ignimbrites, except for the area at the frontier between Bolivia and Chile which features Quaternary volcanics; the pre-ignimbrite basement crops out only farther west.

[36] Geologic lineaments have influenced the development of the volcanoes, including that of Tocorpuri,[37] and La Torta formed at the end of a thrust fault that may have served as the path of ascent of magma.

[38] The volcanic rocks of Tocorpuri consist of andesite, dacite[d] and rhyolite[9] and define a potassium-rich calc-alkaline suite.

[15] The crystal-rich[32] dacitic to rhyolitic composition of La Torta resembles that of the other APVC lava domes.

[31] Tocorpuri is reported to be solfatarically active,[5] and there are hot springs, gas seeps[41] and bubbling pools at 5,000 metres (16,000 ft) elevation north of La Torta.

[46] A Holocene age was inferred from the fact that on its southeastern flank, La Torta overlies late Pleistocene moraines.

[10] The La Torta lava dome was emplaced through an effusive eruption that commenced with weak explosive activity;[4][11] it appears to have formed through a single event.

[20] It is not clear whether volcanism at La Torta and the other lava domes is a relic of the previous activity of the APVC or the beginning of a new magmatic cycle.