Abstract: Revealing the disaster-inducing mechanisms of fracturing instability and the evolution patterns of fracture fields in the overburden during the mining of deeply buried extra-thick coal seams serves as the theoretical foundation for preventing hazards such as water and sand inrushes in coal mine working faces. Based on the mining geological conditions of the 2301 working face in a mine in Shaanxi Province, China, this study investigated the fracture movement and dynamic distribution characteristics of the fracture field in the overburden through a combined approach of numerical simulation, fractal theory, fracture entropy theory, mechanical modeling, and field measurements. Firstly, the dynamic evolutions of fracture rate, fractal dimension, fracture length, and fracture entropy in the overburden were analyzed from the perspective of the mining-induced fracture field. Besides, the proportions of open and closed fractures, fracture length characteristics, and fractal evolution features in various sub-regions during mining were further revealed. Moreover, the anisotropy of spatial distribution of fractures in the overburden was quantified, and the equilibrium trajectory equation of the stress arch in the overburden was established. The following beneficial results were obtained. The overburden exhibits pronounced group-wise fracture movement behavior and periodic arching characteristics of the fracture arch, where the periodic arching fracture serves as the dominant fracture controlling the fracture field. The fractures within the fractured zone are distributed in an “arc shape”, and the average fracture rate and fractal dimension there are 2.40% and 0.81, respectively. The mining-induced fracture field evolves into a largely symmetrical “arc-shaped” topological structure. During mining, the fracture field successively experiences “stress field reconstruction, fracture initiation and propagation, structural instability and reorganization, and self-repair regulation”, while fractures in the overburden undergo a dynamic evolution process from “fracture opening” to “fracture closing”. In this process, dominant fracture groups merge to form interconnected fracture networks. Furthermore, the anisotropy of fracture spatial distribution in different regions of the fracture field was quantified in the light of the fracture entropy theory, and the evolution and distribution characteristics of fracture dip angles in various regions of the mining-affected overburden were statistically analyzed. Based on the three-hinged arch structure theory, the equilibrium trajectory equation of the stress arch in the overburden was established. Field measurement results disclose a water-conducting fracture zone height of 224 m and a fracture-to-mining ratio of 24.9, which closely align with the numerical simulation outcomes. The findings provide valuable insights for hazard prevention in working faces under similar geological conditions.