Tarim Basin is a large composite and superimposed sedimentary basin developed on the basement of pre-Sinian continental crust. It has undergone three mega-cycles of extension and convergence that separately occurred in Sinian-Middle Devonian

Late Devonian-Triassic and Jurassic-Quaternary. During Sinian to Middle Devonian

i.e. the period of paleo-Asian ocean or proto-Tethyan ocean

it experienced the developmental cycle of intracontinental rift-passive epicontinental basin-foreland basin. From Late Devonian to Triassic

the period of paleo-Tethyan ocean ocean

the southwestern margin of Tarim experienced the developmental cycle of intracontinental rift/passive epicontinental basin-back-arc extensional basin-back-arc foreland basin. From Jurassic to Quaternary

the period of neo-Tethyan ocean

it experienced the developmental cycle of intracontinental rift/depression-compressional adjustment-late foreland basin. There were three secondary cycles during the intracontinental rift/depression-compressional adjustment period. Stratigraphic sequences of the prototype basin in the extensional stage are much more continuous

while those in the convergence stage are characterized by large lateral variation. The complex and superimposed geologic configuration of the basin had been determined by the geodynamic process and pattern of the basin evolution

as well as by the tectonic framework transformation

which would control the basic characteristics of hydrocarbon accumulation and distribution.