Karst collapse is a serious geological problem in most of the coal mines in the north of China, but recently it has been found in the south as well. The present study is aimed at investigating subsidence mechanism and deformation field of a karst collapse column at Xieqiao, in the south of China. A method of three-dimensional (3-D) seismic technique has been successful in exploring the spatial morphology of the karst collapse at Xieqiao, and the discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) method is used to calculate the deformation field and analyze the subsidence mechanism. The results indicated that DDA could approximately simulate and back analyze the subsidence process and strata deformation fields. The subsidence processes of the collapse column depend on the sizes of the karst caves. With the continuous expansion of the karst caves, a semi-elliptic stress field, local separation strata and fracture zone will be formed around the karst cave. Moreover, they will gradually expand upwards along the vertical direction. The paper also indicates that the subsidence failure stage may trigger a sudden collapse of the karst column because of the sudden energy release. Also, it will make a great impact on the vicinity working face so as to cause a rock burst. The effects of the friction angle of rock strata on the subsidence mechanism were reported firstly based on DDA. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.