2011 Virginia earthquake
E32950
The 2011 Virginia earthquake was a rare, moderate-magnitude intraplate earthquake centered in Mineral, Virginia, that was widely felt across the U.S. East Coast and caused notable structural damage to landmarks including the Washington National Cathedral and the Washington Monument.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| 2011 Virginia earthquake canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T254823 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: 2011 Virginia earthquake Context triple: [Washington National Cathedral, damagedBy, 2011 Virginia earthquake]
-
A.
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a devastating magnitude 7.8 seismic event that struck Northern California, causing widespread destruction and fires that nearly leveled San Francisco and became one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.
-
B.
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was a powerful magnitude 6.9 quake in Northern California that caused widespread damage in the San Francisco Bay Area, including freeway collapses and the disruption of the World Series.
-
C.
1755 Lisbon earthquake
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake was a devastating seismic event that struck Portugal’s capital on All Saints’ Day, triggering massive fires and a tsunami, and profoundly influencing European philosophy, science, and urban planning.
-
D.
Great Kanto earthquake
The Great Kanto earthquake was a devastating 1923 seismic disaster that struck the Tokyo-Yokohama region of Japan, causing massive destruction and loss of life.
-
E.
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia is a historic independent port city in southeastern Virginia, known for hosting the world’s largest naval base and serving as a major cultural and economic center of the Hampton Roads region.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: 2011 Virginia earthquake Target entity description: The 2011 Virginia earthquake was a rare, moderate-magnitude intraplate earthquake centered in Mineral, Virginia, that was widely felt across the U.S. East Coast and caused notable structural damage to landmarks including the Washington National Cathedral and the Washington Monument.
-
A.
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a devastating magnitude 7.8 seismic event that struck Northern California, causing widespread destruction and fires that nearly leveled San Francisco and became one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.
-
B.
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was a powerful magnitude 6.9 quake in Northern California that caused widespread damage in the San Francisco Bay Area, including freeway collapses and the disruption of the World Series.
-
C.
1755 Lisbon earthquake
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake was a devastating seismic event that struck Portugal’s capital on All Saints’ Day, triggering massive fires and a tsunami, and profoundly influencing European philosophy, science, and urban planning.
-
D.
Great Kanto earthquake
The Great Kanto earthquake was a devastating 1923 seismic disaster that struck the Tokyo-Yokohama region of Japan, causing massive destruction and loss of life.
-
E.
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia is a historic independent port city in southeastern Virginia, known for hosting the world’s largest naval base and serving as a major cultural and economic center of the Hampton Roads region.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
earthquake
ⓘ
intraplate earthquake ⓘ |
| aftershocks | multiple aftershocks over subsequent days and weeks ⓘ |
| buildingEvacuations | federal buildings in Washington, D.C. were evacuated ⓘ |
| casualties | no direct fatalities ⓘ |
| causedDamageTo |
Louisa County public schools
ⓘ
National Cathedral central tower ⓘ
linked to:
National Cathedral
National Cathedral flying buttresses ⓘ National Cathedral pinnacles ⓘ North Anna Nuclear Generating Station facilities ⓘ Washington Monument ⓘ Washington Monument pyramidion ⓘ
linked to:
Washington Monument
Washington Monument stonework ⓘ Washington National Cathedral ⓘ
linked to:
National Cathedral
|
| comparedTo | one of the largest earthquakes in the eastern United States in the early 21st century ⓘ |
| continent | North America ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| date | 2011-08-23 ⓘ |
| depth | about 6 km ⓘ |
| economicDamage | hundreds of millions of US dollars ⓘ |
| epicenterNear | Mineral, Virginia ⓘ |
| feltIn |
Canada
ⓘ
Georgia ⓘ Illinois ⓘ Maryland ⓘ New Jersey ⓘ
linked to:
New Jersey, United States
New York ⓘ North Carolina ⓘ Ohio ⓘ Ontario ⓘ Pennsylvania ⓘ Quebec ⓘ
linked to:
Quebec, Canada
Virginia ⓘ Washington, D.C. ⓘ |
| injuries | dozens of minor injuries ⓘ |
| locatedIn |
Louisa County, Virginia
ⓘ
Mineral, Virginia ⓘ U.S. East Coast ⓘ
linked to:
East Coast of the United States
Virginia ⓘ |
| magnitude | 5.8 Mw ⓘ |
| maximumIntensity | VII (Very strong) ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being widely felt across the U.S. East Coast
ⓘ
causing structural damage to major landmarks in Washington, D.C. ⓘ |
| region | Central Virginia Seismic Zone ⓘ |
| seismicZone | Central Virginia Seismic Zone ⓘ |
| time |
13:51:04 EDT
ⓘ
17:51:04 UTC ⓘ |
| transportDisruption | temporary disruption of rail and air traffic on the U.S. East Coast ⓘ |
| triggered | automatic shutdown of North Anna Nuclear Generating Station reactors ⓘ |
| type | reverse faulting ⓘ |
| year | 2011 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: 2011 Virginia earthquake Description of subject: The 2011 Virginia earthquake was a rare, moderate-magnitude intraplate earthquake centered in Mineral, Virginia, that was widely felt across the U.S. East Coast and caused notable structural damage to landmarks including the Washington National Cathedral and the Washington Monument.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
National Cathedral
subject linked to:
North Anna Nuclear Generating Station facilities