Lake Chalco (99.0ยฐW, 19.5ยฐN) in the Basin of Mexico, was formed during the Pleistocene after the emplacement of the Chichinautzin volcanic field that closed the former drainage system. The lake sediment record has been influenced by a number of factors, including glacial-interglacial cycles, local volcanism, erosion of soils and anthropogenic disturbances. The magnetic properties of the lake sediments and the associated tephra layers of the last 16 500 yr have been studied. It is found that the magnetic properties of the Lake Chalco sediments are very distinctive. Magnetic concentration varies by a factor of 1000 and magnetic stability also varies over an extremely wide range. The predominant magnetic mineral is titanomagnetite in addition to an imperfect antiferromagnetic phase, possibly goethite. An unusually large range of coercivities is found in certain of the tephras. Down-core variations in magnetic properties closely follow climatic/environmental changes previously established by other proxy methods. The late Pleistocene and late Holocene lake sediments display a higher concentration of magnetic minerals than the early-middle Holocene sediments. In the non-volcanic sediments, fluctuations in the magnetic concentration reflect changes in both the intensity of erosion, as represented by ferrimagnetic and paramagnetic minerals, and by the maturing of soils, as represented by geothite.