Richter magnitude scale
E12175
The Richter magnitude scale is a logarithmic scale used to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake based on instrumental measurements.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Richter magnitude scale canonical | 12 |
| Richter scale | 2 |
| Richter magnitude scale for large earthquakes | 1 |
| original Richter magnitude scale | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T110936 — 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: Richter magnitude scale Context triple: [Modified Mercalli intensity scale, differentFrom, Richter magnitude scale]
-
A.
Modified Mercalli intensity scale
The Modified Mercalli intensity scale is a seismic scale that qualitatively measures the observed effects and damage of an earthquake on people, structures, and the Earth's surface.
-
B.
Eureka
Eureka is a historic coastal city in Northern California known for its Victorian architecture, maritime heritage, and role as a regional cultural and economic center.
-
C.
seismologist Harry Fielding Reid
Harry Fielding Reid was an American seismologist best known for formulating the elastic rebound theory, which explains how energy is stored and released in earthquakes.
-
D.
Namba
Namba is a major commercial and entertainment district in Osaka, Japan, known for its bustling nightlife, shopping, and iconic neon-lit streets.
-
E.
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.
- 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: Richter magnitude scale Target entity description: The Richter magnitude scale is a logarithmic scale used to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake based on instrumental measurements.
-
A.
Modified Mercalli intensity scale
The Modified Mercalli intensity scale is a seismic scale that qualitatively measures the observed effects and damage of an earthquake on people, structures, and the Earth's surface.
-
B.
Eureka
Eureka is a historic coastal city in Northern California known for its Victorian architecture, maritime heritage, and role as a regional cultural and economic center.
-
C.
seismologist Harry Fielding Reid
Harry Fielding Reid was an American seismologist best known for formulating the elastic rebound theory, which explains how energy is stored and released in earthquakes.
-
D.
Namba
Namba is a major commercial and entertainment district in Osaka, Japan, known for its bustling nightlife, shopping, and iconic neon-lit streets.
-
E.
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.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
logarithmic scale
ⓘ
scientific measurement scale ⓘ seismic magnitude scale ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Richter magnitude scale
ⓘ
surface form:
Richter scale
local magnitude scale ⓘ |
| appliesTo | local earthquakes ⓘ |
| assumes | similar attenuation characteristics as Southern California ⓘ |
| basedOn |
instrumental measurements
ⓘ
maximum amplitude of seismic waves ⓘ |
| calibratedFor |
100 km epicentral distance
ⓘ
shallow earthquakes ⓘ |
| category | logarithmic intensity scales in earth sciences ⓘ |
| comparedWith |
Modified Mercalli intensity scale
ⓘ
surface form:
Mercalli intensity scale
|
| definedUsing | Wood–Anderson torsion seismometer ⓘ |
| developedBy |
Beno Gutenberg
ⓘ
Charles Francis Richter ⓘ |
| differenceFrom | Mercalli intensity scale measures observed effects, not energy ⓘ |
| domain |
earthquake engineering
ⓘ
geophysics ⓘ |
| field | seismology ⓘ |
| influencedBy | earlier magnitude concepts of Beno Gutenberg ⓘ |
| limitation |
less accurate for very large earthquakes
ⓘ
region-dependent calibration ⓘ |
| logarithmBase | 10 ⓘ |
| lowerLimit | negative magnitudes possible for very small events ⓘ |
| measures |
earthquake magnitude
ⓘ
seismic energy release ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Charles Francis Richter ⓘ |
| oftenConfusedWith | moment magnitude scale ⓘ |
| originallyDefinedFor | Southern California ⓘ |
| property |
each whole number step corresponds to about 31.6 times more energy release
ⓘ
each whole number step represents tenfold increase in wave amplitude ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1935 ⓘ |
| quantifies | size of seismic events ⓘ |
| range | approximately 0 to 9 and above ⓘ |
| regionSpecific | Southern California crustal structure ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
seismic moment
ⓘ
seismograph readings ⓘ |
| scaleType | base-10 logarithmic ⓘ |
| status | largely obsolete for modern large-earthquake reporting ⓘ |
| stillUsedFor |
historical earthquake records
ⓘ
public communication ⓘ |
| supersededBy |
moment magnitude scale
ⓘ
surface form:
Mw scale
moment magnitude scale ⓘ |
| symbol | ML ⓘ |
| unit | magnitude unit (dimensionless) ⓘ |
| usedFor |
comparing earthquake sizes
ⓘ
earthquake cataloging ⓘ |
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: Richter magnitude scale Description of subject: The Richter magnitude scale is a logarithmic scale used to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake based on instrumental measurements.
Referenced by (16)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Richter scale
subject surface form:
Mercalli intensity scale
this entity surface form:
original Richter magnitude scale
this entity surface form:
Richter scale
this entity surface form:
Richter magnitude scale for large earthquakes
subject surface form:
Charles Francis Richter
subject surface form:
Charles Francis Richter