Nigeria

Nigeria presents a more complex seismic picture than most West African countries despite its location on the stable West African craton. The country contains several zones of elevated seismicity associated with ancient basement [[fault]] structures, rift-related features, and the Cameroon Volcanic Line influence along its eastern border. The most seismically active region of Nigeria is the eastern borderland, where the Benue Trough — a Cretaceous failed rift — intersects with the southern extension of the Cameroon Volcanic Line.

The Benue Trough is a broad northeast-trending sedimentary basin that formed as a failed rift arm during the Cretaceous opening of the South Atlantic, approximately 130 million years ago. While the main rift phase has long ceased, the basin-bounding faults and internal fault structures of the trough can be reactivated under the modern stress field, producing occasional moderate earthquakes. A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck the Jankara area of Plateau State in 2022, causing panic but minimal structural damage. Low-magnitude events are occasionally felt in Jos, Kano, and other northern Nigerian cities.

In southwest Nigeria, the ancient Precambrian basement of the Basement Complex contains numerous northeast and northwest-trending structural lineaments. Some of these, particularly in the Ibadan-Ijebu Ode area, have produced low-level seismicity. Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta sits in a geologically complex zone where delta sediment compaction, subsidence, and possible gas-related processes interact with the regional stress field, occasionally producing minor felt events.

The [[seismic-wave]] characteristics of Nigerian earthquakes reflect the heterogeneous geological substrate — a mix of ancient basement rocks, Cretaceous sedimentary basins, and Cenozoic delta deposits. Wave propagation is efficient in the crystalline basement but attenuated in the thick sedimentary sequences of the Niger Delta. Historical records document a magnitude 6.3 earthquake near Kano in 1969 that was widely felt across northern Nigeria and neighbouring countries. More recently, the increasing use of hydraulic fracturing and water injection in the Niger Delta oil and gas industry has raised questions about the potential for induced seismicity, though confirmed induced events of damaging [[magnitude]] have not been established.