The collapse possibly started in the hydrothermal system of the volcano and progressed to affect a growing lava dome, with a total volume probably exceeding . The total surface area covered by the collapse is about . This collapse was not the first in the history of Tutupaca: an older collapse occurred on the southeast-east flanks of the volcano. Such large collapses of volcanoes took place in historical time at Mount Bandai in 1888 and Mount St. Helens in 1980; they can produce large avalanches of debris.