The Guacha caldera forms a structure with the neighbouring Cerro Panizos, Coranzulí and Vilama calderas associated with a fault named the Lípez lineament. Activity along this lineament commenced with the Abra Granada volcanic complex 10 mya ago and dramatically increased more than a million years later. Volcanic activity is linked to this fault zone and to the thermal maturation of the underlying crust. After 4 million years ago activity waned again in the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex.