Abstract: The South Yellow Sea is a superimposed basin formed on the Pre-Sinian metamorphic basement of the Lower Yangtze Platform. The Yantai Depression is a depositional domain filled by terrestrial Meso-Cenozoic deposits. Since Mesozoic, the depression has affected by multiphase tectonic movement. Changes in tectonic stress fields have led to a complex basin evolutionary history with different structural characteristics and a variety of tectonic styles. Based on the seismic data of the region, we summarized the tectonic styles in this region and discussed about their origin. The study area has suffered from the changes in stress during the Yanshan and Himalayan movements. There occur extensional, inversed and strike-slip tectonic styles in the region up to the difference in tectonic regime.