The formation and evolution of Mesozoic basins in the area of the Jiyang depression were related to the convergence between the North China plate and Yangtze plate in the Eurasian tectonic system and the activity of the Tanlu fault zone of the circum-Pacific tectonic system. During the Early and Middle Triassic, as a part of the large interior basin in North China, sediments deposited there with a thickness of more than 2000 m. In the Late Triassic, controlled by compressional stress field caused by the collision between the North China plate and Yangtze plate, the area was uplifted and denudated, and some northwest-trending reverse faults and folds developed. During the Early and Middle Jurassic, a rugged landform caused by reverse faults was formed. From the Late Jurassic to Cretaceous, due to the sinistral shearing of the Tanlu fault, the earlier reverse faults inversed negatively, and some semi-grabens developed. As Mesozoic basins controlled by the NW-trending faults was superposed by Cenozoic basin controlled by the NE (or NNE)-trending faults, the area of the Jiyang depression has four types of basin superimposing units such as "sagged in the Mesozoic and sagged in the Cenozoic", "sagged in the Mesozoic and uplifted in the Cenozoic", "uplifted in the Mesozoic and sagged in the Cenozoic" and "uplifted in the Mesozoic and uplifted in the Cenozoic". Each type of basin superposing units had experienced different subsidence history with different petro-geological significance.