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Fractures can provide valuable information for tectonic evolution. According to the data of outcrops, cores, thin sections and well logs, the tectonic fractures in the Qaidam Basin can be divided into four types: small faults (including small normal fault and small reverse fault), vertical open fracture, bedding plane slip fracture and horizontal open fracture. Our fracture observations provide new constraints on the Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Qaidam Basin. Syn-sedimentary small normal faults in the Paleogene strata indicate the extension deformation during the Paleogene. Small reverse faults, vertical open fractures and bedding plane slip fractures occurred in the Paleogene and Neogene strata have genetic relationship. According to the burial history and homogenization temperature of fluid inclusions of gypsum and calcite filled in the vertical open fractures, it can be deduced that the vertical open fractures being formed mainly from the late Miocene Shangyoushashan Formation with age of 5.1 Ma to the end of Pliocene Shizigou Formation with age of 2.6 Ma, indicating small reverse faults, vertical open fractures and bedding plane slip fractures were simultaneously formed in the Neogene. These fractures were resulted from the compression deformation. The horizontal open fractures occurred in the Paleogene, Neogene and Quaternary strata with apertures and intensities decreasing with depth were formed by the large-scale quick uplift and denudation resulted from the strong compression deformation since the Quaternary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]