Orientation of the maximum horizontal compressive stress in metropolitan France and Western Europe. Small solid bars show orientations of in-situ maximum horizontal compressive stress (σ_H) from the World Stress Map (Heidbach et al., 2018). Thick dashed white lines show smoothed σ_H orientation. Green, blue and red bars show σ_H orientation from focal mechanism inversions in strike-slip, extensional and shortening stress regimes. (b) Schema of state of stress with permutations between σ₁ and σ₂ allowing for oscillations between strike-slip and extensional regimes while maintaining σ_H orientation.