Abstract: The Tarim Basin Lies in the central part of the Asia continent and has a basement composed of highly-metamor-mphosed rocks of Archeozoic and Proterozoicages. It is bounded to the north by the Central Asia—Mongolia foldbelt and on the south by the Kunlun foldbelt. The evolutionary history of the Tarim Basin can be divided into pre—plate-form stage,plateform stage and basin stage. The basin consists tectonically of foothill depressions, intrabasin uplifts and depressions,and marginal thrust uplifts. With a compressional nature accompanied by intense convergent strikeslip faults,the Tarim Basin is a major petroliferous and multi-cyclic cratonic basin with faulting events superposed by depressionai oaes. The Mcso-Ccnozoic Erathcm belongs to terrestrial sedimentary sequence and fault-block structural style which differs from those of foredeeps related to A—subduction in North America.