Keywords: 
• Kuqa depression /
• Cretaceous /
• sedimentation rates /
• Chronostratigraphy

Abstract: Highresolution chronostratigraphic framework has been established through the detailed magnetostratigraphic study on Cretaceous succession in the Kuqa River and Kezilenuer Channel profiles. On the basis of the results, subsidence history in Cretaceous of Kuqa depression is recovered by back stripping method. Sedimentation rates of Yageliemu, Shushanhe, Baxigai and Bashenjiqike formation are calculated with a result of 11.5cm/ka, 2.5cm/ka, 2.9cm/ka and 1.7cm/ka, respectively. Combining with the data of fission track and paleogeography, subsidence history in Cretaceous of Kuqa depression can be divided into four stages, (1) middle Berriasian (141.9141.2Ma): sharp subsidence; (2) middlelate Berriasian to middlelate Albian (141.2101Ma): slow subsidence; (3) at the end of Albian to early Campanian (10179.1Ma): tectonic uplift and ablation of sedimentation;(4) middlelate Campanian Maastrichtian (79.165.6Ma): slow subsidence and sedimentary. Characteristic of “concave upwards” in the subsidence curve of the middlelate phases in early Cretaceous reflects the process of tectonic activity that from early sharp subsidence to late weaken, and incline to stabilize finally, which indicates that Kuqa depression has no the characteristic of foreland basin in the early Cretaceous.