1985 Mexico City earthquake
E219257
The 1985 Mexico City earthquake was a devastating magnitude 8.0 seismic event that struck Mexico City on September 19, 1985, causing widespread destruction and significant loss of life.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| 1985 Mexico City earthquake canonical | 2 |
| 1985 Mexico earthquake | 1 |
| Terremoto de México de 1985 | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1958954 — 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: 1985 Mexico City earthquake Context triple: [Torre Latinoamericana, survivedEvent, 1985 Mexico City earthquake]
-
A.
1986 San Salvador earthquake
The 1986 San Salvador earthquake was a devastating magnitude 5.7 tremor that struck El Salvador’s capital region on October 10, 1986, causing widespread destruction and significant loss of life.
-
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.
2010 Chile earthquake
The 2010 Chile earthquake was a massive magnitude 8.8 megathrust quake off the coast of central Chile that caused widespread destruction, triggered a tsunami, and became one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded.
-
D.
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.
-
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: 1985 Mexico City earthquake Target entity description: The 1985 Mexico City earthquake was a devastating magnitude 8.0 seismic event that struck Mexico City on September 19, 1985, causing widespread destruction and significant loss of life.
-
A.
1986 San Salvador earthquake
The 1986 San Salvador earthquake was a devastating magnitude 5.7 tremor that struck El Salvador’s capital region on October 10, 1986, causing widespread destruction and significant loss of life.
-
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.
2010 Chile earthquake
The 2010 Chile earthquake was a massive magnitude 8.8 megathrust quake off the coast of central Chile that caused widespread destruction, triggered a tsunami, and became one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded.
-
D.
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.
-
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 (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
earthquake
ⓘ
natural disaster ⓘ |
| affectedArea |
Mexico
ⓘ
Mexico City ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
1985 Mexico City earthquake
ⓘ
surface form:
1985 Mexico earthquake
1985 Mexico City earthquake ⓘ
surface form:
Terremoto de México de 1985
|
| buildingsCollapsed | thousands of buildings ⓘ |
| casualties |
at least 10,000 deaths
ⓘ
tens of thousands injured ⓘ |
| category |
1985 disasters in Mexico
ⓘ
Earthquakes in Mexico ⓘ History of Mexico City ⓘ |
| commemoratedOn | annual drills in Mexico on September 19 ⓘ |
| country | Mexico ⓘ |
| date | 1985-09-19 ⓘ |
| deadliestIn | modern history of Mexico ⓘ |
| depth | 17 km ⓘ |
| displacedPeople | hundreds of thousands ⓘ |
| economicImpact | billions of US dollars in damage ⓘ |
| epicenterNear | Michoacán ⓘ |
| faultType | subduction zone ⓘ |
| governmentResponse | large-scale rescue and recovery operations ⓘ |
| inspired | improvements in urban disaster preparedness in Mexico City ⓘ |
| internationalResponse | international humanitarian aid to Mexico ⓘ |
| ledTo |
creation of Mexico’s National Civil Protection System
ⓘ
creation of volunteer rescue group Topos de Tlatelolco ⓘ major reforms in Mexico’s civil protection system ⓘ strengthening of building codes in Mexico ⓘ |
| localTime | 07:17 ⓘ |
| locatedOn | Middle America Trench subduction interface ⓘ |
| magnitude |
8.0 Mw
ⓘ
8.1 Ms ⓘ |
| maxIntensity | IX (Violent) on the Modified Mercalli scale ⓘ |
| notableAftershockDate | 1985-09-20 ⓘ |
| notableAftershockMagnitude | 7.5 Mw ⓘ |
| notableConsequence | political impact on the Mexican government of Miguel de la Madrid ⓘ |
| notableLocationOfDamage |
Colonia Doctores
ⓘ
Colonia Roma ⓘ Historic Centre of Mexico City ⓘ
surface form:
Historic center of Mexico City
Tlatelolco ⓘ |
| partOf | seismic activity along the Middle America Trench ⓘ |
| primaryCauseOfDamage |
amplification of seismic waves in lakebed sediments
ⓘ
building code deficiencies ⓘ poor construction practices ⓘ |
| recordedBy | seismological agencies worldwide ⓘ |
| tectonicSetting | Cocos Plate subducting beneath North American Plate ⓘ |
| timeZone | UTC−06:00 ⓘ |
| triggeredEvent | 1985 Mexico City earthquake aftershocks ⓘ |
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: 1985 Mexico City earthquake Description of subject: The 1985 Mexico City earthquake was a devastating magnitude 8.0 seismic event that struck Mexico City on September 19, 1985, causing widespread destruction and significant loss of life.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
1985 Mexico earthquake
this entity surface form:
Terremoto de México de 1985