Abstract：With the development of national economy and defense works，there are more and more deep underground rock wass engineering，such as the mines with depth of thousand to several thousands meters(Jinchuan nickel mines and gold mines in South Africa，etc.)，water diversion tunnels and auxiliary tunnel of Jinping II hydropower station，deep geological deposition of nuclear waste and deep underground protection engineering. While the deep rock mass are excavated by the blast or other methods，the deformation and fracture of the surrounding rock show several new scientific characteristic phenomena. Besides the deep rockburst and large deformation of tunnel in squeezing ground，the phenomenon of zonal disintegration attracts the attentions of scholars and engineers in the fields of geotechnical engineering and rock mechanics in the world. Based on the experimental and theoretical researches of zonal disintegration phenomenon at home and abroad，the main characteristics and corresponding changing laws of zonal disintegration are summarized. It is revealed the mechanism for the occurrence of zonal disintegration；and the emphasis in this field is proposed. Also the domestic experimental and theoretical investigations of zonal disintegration phenomenon are introduced.
