The constitutive laws of the collapse of underground openings in a rock massif were investigated based on the results of laboratory and field experiments,and computations using analytical and numerical models.It is shown that the principal mechanism of failure of underground openings over important for practice peak particle velocity amplitude range of 1 to 10 m/s is the roof and wall breakage due to the fall of key blocks.Over this load range the material crushing is of considerably less importance.The geometry of discontinuities influences mainly the stability of key blocks.Further caving depends weakly on block structure of near-tunnel zone.The mean volume of fall material is a rather stable quantity for rock massifs of different structures.Lower tunnel stability in the zones of high fracturing is caused by a higher probability of the presence of the unstable key blocks and the decrease of strength characteristics of fractured bounding blocks.The decrease of average block size is a less important accompanying factor.