2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
E86077
The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami was a devastating magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off Japan’s northeastern coast that triggered massive tsunamis, widespread destruction, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
All labels observed (10)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami canonical | 37 |
| 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami | 10 |
| 2011 Tōhoku earthquake | 10 |
| 2011 Tōhoku tsunami | 8 |
| Great East Japan Earthquake | 2 |
| Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami | 2 |
| 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami | 1 |
| 2011年東北地方太平洋沖地震 | 1 |
| 2011年東日本大震災 | 1 |
| 東日本大震災 | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T675164 — 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 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami Context triple: [Heisei, notableEventDuringEra, 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami]
-
A.
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.
-
B.
Great Hanshin earthquake
The Great Hanshin earthquake was a devastating 1995 seismic disaster in Japan that caused widespread destruction and loss of life, particularly in the city of Kobe.
-
C.
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was a massive undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Sumatra that triggered devastating tsunamis across the Indian Ocean, killing over 200,000 people and becoming one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.
-
D.
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a 2011 catastrophic failure at a Japanese nuclear power plant triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami, leading to core meltdowns, radioactive releases, and long-term environmental and policy impacts worldwide.
-
E.
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.
- 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 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami Target entity description: The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami was a devastating magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off Japan’s northeastern coast that triggered massive tsunamis, widespread destruction, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
-
A.
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.
-
B.
Great Hanshin earthquake
The Great Hanshin earthquake was a devastating 1995 seismic disaster in Japan that caused widespread destruction and loss of life, particularly in the city of Kobe.
-
C.
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was a massive undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Sumatra that triggered devastating tsunamis across the Indian Ocean, killing over 200,000 people and becoming one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.
-
D.
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a 2011 catastrophic failure at a Japanese nuclear power plant triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami, leading to core meltdowns, radioactive releases, and long-term environmental and policy impacts worldwide.
-
E.
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.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (71)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
earthquake in Japan
ⓘ
megathrust earthquake ⓘ natural disaster ⓘ tsunami ⓘ undersea earthquake ⓘ |
| affectedRegion |
Aomori Prefecture
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Chiba Prefecture NERFINISHED ⓘ Fukushima Prefecture NERFINISHED ⓘ Honshu ⓘ Ibaraki Prefecture ⓘ Iwate Prefecture ⓘ Miyagi Prefecture ⓘ Tōhoku ⓘ
linked to:
Tohoku
|
| alsoKnownAs |
2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami
ⓘ
linked to:
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
Great East Japan Earthquake ⓘ
linked to:
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
|
| casualtiesDeaths | over 19000 people dead or missing ⓘ |
| casualtiesInjured | thousands injured ⓘ |
| category |
21st-century earthquake
ⓘ
disaster in 2011 ⓘ earthquake-induced tsunami ⓘ tsunami in Japan ⓘ |
| country | Japan ⓘ |
| date | 2011-03-11 ⓘ |
| displacedPeople | hundreds of thousands displaced ⓘ |
| economicDamage |
hundreds of billions of US dollars
ⓘ
one of the costliest natural disasters in history ⓘ |
| epicenterLocation | off the northeastern coast of Honshu, Japan ⓘ |
| epicenterOcean | Pacific Ocean ⓘ |
| epicenterRegion |
Tōhoku region
ⓘ
linked to:
Tohoku
|
| faultType | megathrust ⓘ |
| globalEffect |
caused changes in tsunami warning systems
ⓘ
prompted worldwide review of nuclear safety ⓘ shortened the length of Earth’s day slightly ⓘ slightly shifted Earth’s axis of rotation ⓘ |
| governingBodyResponse | Government of Japan emergency response ⓘ |
| infrastructureImpact |
collapse of buildings
ⓘ
power outages ⓘ severe damage to roads and railways ⓘ water supply disruption ⓘ |
| internationalResponse | international humanitarian aid ⓘ |
| localTime | 14:46 JST ⓘ |
| locationContinent | Asia ⓘ |
| locationCountry | Japan ⓘ |
| magnitude | 9.0 ⓘ |
| maximumIntensity |
IX (Violent) on the JMA seismic intensity scale
ⓘ
IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale ⓘ |
| momentMagnitudeScale | Mw 9.0 ⓘ |
| notableAftershock |
Mw 7.1 aftershock on 2011-04-07
ⓘ
Mw 7.9 aftershock on 2011-03-11 ⓘ |
| oceanCrossingTsunami | tsunami observed across the Pacific Ocean ⓘ |
| overridingPlate | Okhotsk Plate ⓘ |
| plateBoundary | subduction zone ⓘ |
| relatedDisaster |
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
ⓘ
Fukushima nuclear meltdown ⓘ
linked to:
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
|
| seismicAftershocks | thousands of aftershocks over subsequent months ⓘ |
| subductingPlate | Pacific Plate ⓘ |
| triggeredEvent |
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
ⓘ
Fukushima Daini nuclear plant emergency ⓘ Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant emergency ⓘ tsunami ⓘ |
| tsunamiArrivalTime | within minutes on the Tōhoku coast ⓘ |
| tsunamiImpact |
damage to ports and fishing industry
ⓘ
destruction of coastal towns ⓘ widespread coastal flooding ⓘ |
| tsunamiImpactAbroad |
damage along the west coast of the United States
ⓘ
damage in Chile ⓘ damage in Hawaii ⓘ |
| tsunamiMaximumHeight | about 40.5 metres ⓘ |
| tsunamiRunUpHeight | over 30 metres in some locations ⓘ |
| tsunamiWarning | Japan Meteorological Agency issued major tsunami warnings ⓘ |
| 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 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami Description of subject: The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami was a devastating magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off Japan’s northeastern coast that triggered massive tsunamis, widespread destruction, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
Referenced by (73)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
subject linked to:
"Shin Godzilla" (2016)
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
subject linked to:
Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
subject linked to:
Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
subject linked to:
Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
linked to: 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami