Objectives: Climate is one of the dominant factors which control evaporite deposits in Qaidam Basin, but its mechanism remains to be clarified. The aim of this paper is to make a comparison between the evaporite deposit period and glacial period since marine oxygen isotope stage 6 (MIS6), and clarify the role of late Quaternary glacial climate in evaporite deposit. Methods:The authors took 3 salt- bearing profiles (D18, MXK2 and D12) from the western Qaidam Basin as the study object, applied multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC- ICP- MS) to obtain the salt deposit age, and applied X- ray diffraction (XRD) to identify the salt minerals from the profiles. Results: MC- ICP- MS U- series dating indicated the deposit ages of D18 profile are 13.1±2.0 ka BP~15.9±2.5 ka BP, of which the mirabilite deposit belong to the late stage of last glacial MIS2; mirabilite deposit ages in MXK2 profile are 131.7±39.5 ka BP and 158.3±10.8 ka BP respectively, mirabilite deposit ages in D12 profile are 166.6±20.2 ka BP and 198.0±20.6 ka BP, which can correspond to the penultimate glacial period MIS6. XRD analysis confirmed that salt minerals in the 3 profiles were mainly mirabilite, halite and gypsum. Conclusions: Combining the study of this paper and evaporite deposits data of other salt lakes in the Qaidam Basin, this paper proposes that the penultimate glacial period MIS6 and the last glaciation MIS2 are two important salt- forming periods of the late Quaternary in the Qaidam Basin, and the cold and dry climate of the glacial period is favorable for salt deposits such as halite and mirabilite. The fundamental reason for salt deposit in the glacial environment in the Qaidam Basin is the expansion of glacier scale in the surrounding mountains, and the dry and cold glacial climate, resulting in the reduction of the recharge volume of the salt lakes in the Qaidam Basin. Besides, the temperature decrease during MIS6 and MIS2 is the direct genesis of the deposit of cold- phase salt minerals such as mirabilite and epsomite.