An 11-m piston core recovered from Lake Turkana contains a strongly cyclical record of carbonate abundance and lamination thickness on a time scale of decades to centuries. Additional carbonate, radiocarbon dates and thickness data together with preliminary magnetic-susceptibility profiles are presented from other cores recovered from the north basin and one core from the south basin to investigate basinwide significance of the cyclical record. Parallel fluctuations of relative carbonate content from north basin cores establish a lithostratigraphy. Lamina thickness and magnetic-susceptibility profiles provide independent correlations of these cores, and both are consistent with carbonate lithostratigraphy. Magnetic susceptibility of the sediment is interpreted to reflect nput of fluvial and eolian ferromagnetic materials with localized, episodic input of volcanic ash. Based on plots of carbonate and magnetic susceptibility vs. radiocarbon age, an extension of north basin stratigraphies into the south basin is not possible.