Abstract
Experimental data on the multiplicities of fragments, their energy and charge distributions, and the emission times are considered for nuclear multifragmentation induced by relativistic light projectiles (protons, helium) and heavy ions. In the case of light projectiles, multifragmentation is a purely "thermal" process well described by statistical models. Multifragmentation induced by heavy ions is affected by dynamical effects associated first of all with the compression of the system in the collision process. Statistical models can be used to describe the disintegration of the system in question, provided that the excitation energy is less than 10 MeV/nucleon, in which case compression is modest. The statistical approach fails to reproduce data in the case of central collision of heavy ions.