Gambia

Gambia is a narrow strip of territory flanking the Gambia River in West Africa, entirely surrounded by Senegal except for its short Atlantic coastline. The country lies on the stable West African craton and its Atlantic passive margin — a tectonically quiet setting that produces essentially no natural seismicity. Gambia is one of the smallest and most seismically inactive countries in Africa.

The West African passive margin developed during the Jurassic-Cretaceous opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean. The offshore sedimentary basins along Gambia's coast are geologically ancient and no longer actively deforming. Buried basement [[fault]]s from the ancient Pan-African orogeny may occasionally produce micro-earthquakes under the ambient stress of the African plate, but these events are well below the threshold of human perception.

Instrumental seismograph networks in West Africa have very limited coverage, and Gambia has no permanent seismic monitoring stations of its own. Regional networks in Senegal and Guinea provide only marginal detection capability in the area. As a result, the completeness of the seismic catalogue for Gambia is poor even for moderate events, although the very low seismicity makes this a minimal practical concern.

Historical records document no earthquake of any significance in the territory that is now Gambia. The [[seismic-wave]] hazard is so low that it does not feature in national risk assessments or building code requirements. Gambia's primary natural hazards are flooding from the Gambia River, drought, and coastal erosion — all driven by climate rather than geology. The country's seismic hazard classification is the lowest possible on regional African hazard maps.