Ground fissures are generated during the coal mining process due to overlying strata migration, which provides gas and water seepage channels and usually contributes to coal mining accidents in shallow buried coal seams with larger mining height working faces. Thus, the evolution features of ground fissures in large mining height working faces and shallow buried coal seams were explored by considering field observation data, similar simulation, and numerical simulations. The results show that the weathered rock layer above the thin bedrock inhibits fracture growth caused by coal mining. Overlying strata fracture expansion can be quantitatively divided into three stages based on fractal dimension: the overburden fracture formation stage, the overburden deformation fracture expansion stage, and the overburden fracture stable development stage. The movement deformation region of the ground fissure can be described by three characteristic zones: the boundary tension zone, the central compression zone, and the central dynamic tension and compression zone. Central dynamic fissures usually have 3–5 fissure counts with 2–5 m intervals between each group of fissures; central fissures develop twice from open to closed widths; the time period for two central fissures to reach their with maximum widths is 11–20 days; and border fissures expand rapidly with maximum values in a time period of 5–6 days.

Hidden mining-induced fissures connected to a goaf may induce spontaneous combustion of abandoned coal, threatening safe coal mining operation and ecological and environmental protection. To identify hidden mining-induced fissures rapidly, accurately and in a timely manner, a novel method involving infrared remote sensing via an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was proposed. Hidden mining-induced fissures above working face No. 52605 of the Daliuta coal mine were continuously monitored using this method. Field experiments revealed that hidden mining-induced fissures could be effectively identified via infrared technology. The diurnal variation in the hidden mining-induced fissure temperature was cosinusoidal. The temperature of the hidden mining-induced fissures was highly correlated with burial depth, and the burial depths of the identified hidden mining-induced fissures differed at various times. The temperature differences among hidden mining-induced fissures, aeolian sands and vegetation varied with time and burial depth. The temperature difference variation between in situ hidden mining-induced fissures and aeolian sand matches that between hidden mining-induced fissures at a 20 cm burial depth and sand. In situ hidden mining-induced fissures could be identified from 1:00 to 5:00 a.m. and from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. under the studied conditions.