Western Interior Basin
E364208
The Western Interior Basin was a vast sedimentary basin that covered much of central North America during the Late Cretaceous, hosting extensive marine and terrestrial environments preserved in formations like Hell Creek.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Western Interior Basin canonical | 4 |
| Western Interior of North America | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3502392 — 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: Western Interior Basin Context triple: [Hell Creek Formation, partOf, Western Interior Basin]
-
A.
Great Plains margin
The Great Plains margin is the transitional geographic zone where the flat interior plains of central North America give way to more dissected terrain and upland regions to the east and west.
-
B.
Central Basin
Central Basin is a prominent water feature within Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin, known for its formal, landscaped surroundings and proximity to key national institutions.
-
C.
Great Plains
The Great Plains is a vast, mostly flat grassland region in central North America known for its prairies, agriculture, and continental climate.
-
D.
Mid-Continent Region
The Mid-Continent Region is a regional office of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement responsible for overseeing coal mining regulation and land reclamation in the central United States.
-
E.
Canada Basin
The Canada Basin is a deep, remote submarine basin in the Arctic Ocean, located north of Alaska and Canada, known for its extreme depths, perennial sea ice cover, and importance to polar oceanographic research.
- 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: Western Interior Basin Target entity description: The Western Interior Basin was a vast sedimentary basin that covered much of central North America during the Late Cretaceous, hosting extensive marine and terrestrial environments preserved in formations like Hell Creek.
-
A.
Great Plains margin
The Great Plains margin is the transitional geographic zone where the flat interior plains of central North America give way to more dissected terrain and upland regions to the east and west.
-
B.
Central Basin
Central Basin is a prominent water feature within Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin, known for its formal, landscaped surroundings and proximity to key national institutions.
-
C.
Great Plains
The Great Plains is a vast, mostly flat grassland region in central North America known for its prairies, agriculture, and continental climate.
-
D.
Mid-Continent Region
The Mid-Continent Region is a regional office of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement responsible for overseeing coal mining regulation and land reclamation in the central United States.
-
E.
Canada Basin
The Canada Basin is a deep, remote submarine basin in the Arctic Ocean, located north of Alaska and Canada, known for its extreme depths, perennial sea ice cover, and importance to polar oceanographic research.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
geologic basin
ⓘ
paleogeographic region ⓘ sedimentary basin ⓘ |
| activeDuring |
Late Cretaceous
ⓘ
Mesozoic ⓘ |
| boundedBy |
Laramide orogeny
ⓘ
surface form:
Laramide uplifts
Sevier orogeny ⓘ
surface form:
Sevier orogenic belt
|
| contains | Western Interior Seaway ⓘ |
| extendsInto |
Canada
ⓘ
Mexico ⓘ United States of America ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| filledBy |
carbonate sediments
ⓘ
clastic sediments ⓘ |
| formedAs | foreland basin ⓘ |
| formedBy | tectonic loading from Sevier orogeny ⓘ |
| hasLithology |
coal
ⓘ
limestone ⓘ mudstone ⓘ sandstone ⓘ shale ⓘ |
| hasStratigraphicRecord | thick sedimentary successions ⓘ |
| hostedEnvironment |
coastal environments
ⓘ
deltaic environments ⓘ fluvial environments ⓘ foreland basin environments ⓘ marine environments ⓘ terrestrial environments ⓘ |
| includesFormation |
Graneros Shale
ⓘ
surface form:
Benton Shale
Dakota Formation ⓘ Hell Creek Formation ⓘ Judith River Formation ⓘ Graneros Shale ⓘ
surface form:
Mancos Shale
Niobrara Chalk ⓘ
surface form:
Niobrara Formation
Pierre Shale ⓘ Two Medicine Formation ⓘ |
| knownFor |
dinosaur fossils
ⓘ
invertebrate fossils ⓘ marine reptile fossils ⓘ microfossils ⓘ rich fossil record ⓘ |
| locatedIn |
Western Interior Basin
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Western Interior of North America
central North America ⓘ |
| paleogeographicRole | link between Arctic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico via Western Interior Seaway ⓘ |
| partOf |
North America
ⓘ
surface form:
North American continent
|
| preserves | Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary in some formations ⓘ |
| researchField |
paleontology
ⓘ
sedimentology ⓘ stratigraphy ⓘ |
| timeSpan | approximately 100 to 66 million years ago ⓘ |
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: Western Interior Basin Description of subject: The Western Interior Basin was a vast sedimentary basin that covered much of central North America during the Late Cretaceous, hosting extensive marine and terrestrial environments preserved in formations like Hell Creek.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Western Interior of North America
this entity surface form:
Western Interior of North America