Abstract: In order to research the failure characteristics of caving zone of steep seam mining,this paper took steep seam of the Datai Colliery as example,the two simi lar material models were employed to research the caving zone failure characteristics and the normal height of deep mining and shallow to deep mining. The failure pattern and normal height of caving zone due to steep seam deep mining of Datai Colliery were measured by the high resolution geophysical exploration. The results showed that t he caving zone form trapezoidal arch structure due to the deep mining and the normal height was about 2.5 times of the mining thickness. The caving zone form zonal dist ribution due to the shallow to deep mining and the normal height was about 5.0 ~ 6.0 times of the mining thickness. The geophysical exploration results showed that the C aving zone form zonal distribution and the normal height was about 5.6 times of the mining thickness. The results of geophysical exploration and similar material model we re identical.