<p>This study applies a comprehensive approach to address the evolution of geo-mechanical conditions leading to coal bursts based on the background of the Buertai coal mine. The mine currently operates in a coal seam, underlying more than 60&#xa0;m below the upper mined-out coal seam; the occurrence of coal bursts seems pertinent to the horizontal offset between lower and upper pillars. A general full-scale numerical model is used to simulate the evolution of geo-mechanical conditions during the complete mining cycle; the numerical model includes static and dynamic stages; dynamic modeling uses a strip seismic source to represent the explicit shear failure mechanism of the pillar core. An analytical approach is derived to obtain the stress distribution of the rock mass under the highly stressed pillar in the upper mined-out coal mine. The analytical results agree well with the numerical results, and both ascertain that the horizontal offset between the lower and upper pillars is critical to the stress state of the lower pillar. The numerical results can account for typical cases in the mine; these results can identify the coal burst conditions. The strip seismic source model can successfully simulate the sudden tailgate deformation due to a shear fracture in the pillar core; the strip seismic model can reasonably reflect the released energy of the shear fracture under varied geo-mechanical conditions.</p>