This study, taking the 220608 and 220707 working faces of Zaoquan Coal Mine as the research background, explores the development patterns of the "two zones" (caving zone and water flowing fractured zone) in the overburden rocks during the mining of close coal seams under multi-key strata conditions. By adopting a combination of theoretical analysis, borehole inspection, and numerical simulation, the results show that when only Coal Seam 6 is mined, the heights of the caving zone and the water flowing fractured zone are 8.45m and 28.64m, respectively. However, when both Coal Seams 6 and 7 are mined in close proximity, the heights of these two zones increase to 23.19m and 55.24m, respectively. Through the quantitative analysis of borehole inspection observations and the characterization of plastic zones in numerical simulations, the development patterns of the "two zones" are summarized. The study finds that the breaking of key strata significantly affects the development rate and range of the "two zones", with the phenomenon becoming increasingly evident in areas controlled by key strata. This research provides an important reference for the safe production of coal mines.