The Boot Heel volcanic field is located in the Bootheel region of southwest New Mexico, adjacent areas of southeastern Arizona, and northwest Mexico. The field covers an area of more than 24,000 km². The field includes nine volcanic calderas ranging in age from 26.9 to 35.3 Ma. Extrusive products include rhyolitic ignimbrites along with basalt, andesite, and rhyolite lava flows. The major ash flow tuff sheets produced, range in volume from 35 to 650 km³.

Activity throughout most of the Boot Heel volcanic field paused between 33 and 28 million years ago. The earlier pulse of activity involved less evolved magmas, while the later pulse was relatively depleted in volatiles. The pause in activity has been interpreted as a period of tectonic reorganization along the west coast of North America, including the birth of the San Andreas fault, that temporarily shifted volcanism to the east.

The field includes the Geronimo-Animas volcanic field and the Palomas volcanic field.