Dust events frequently occur in Tarim Basin (TB), China. However, research is scarce on the variation characteristics of sand-dust, floating-dust, sand-blowing, and sandstorms in the mountains, oases, and deserts in TB. Therefore, we conducted in-depth studies on the distributions and variations of dust events in TB. The results indicate that dust events tend to increase from south to north. The yearly sand-dust event occurrence rate trend is deserts > oases > mountainous regions. Spring events of sand-dust, floating-dust, sand-blowing, and sandstorms account for 35.9%, 36.0%, 38.5%, and 47.1% and summer events for 33.6%, 33.5%, 43.8%, and 60.3% of the total annual average sand-dust, floating-dust, sand-blowing, and sandstorm days, respectively. From 1961 to 2015, most stations (annual average > 30 stations) showed a downward linear trend in sand-dust, floating-dust, sand-blowing, and sandstorms in TB. All types of sand-dust events in mountains and oases decreased substantially after 1975-1978. In spring and summer, the downward dust trends are the most obvious, which the largest annual average downward linear trend rates of floating-dust, sand-blowing, and sandstorms are - 0.33 d/yr (QM station), - 0.21 d/yr (TGLK station), and - 11 d/yr (KP station), respectively, in spring, and - 0.28 d/yr (QM station), - 0.17 d/yr (TGLK station), and - 0.14 d/yr (KP station), respectively, in summer. It is found that the decreasing and increasing trends of floating-dust are the most frequent among sand-dust events. There are a significant positive correlation between wind speed and relative humidity in mountains and a significant positive correlation between wind speed in oases.