We present a compilation of over 1700 focal mechanisms for nearly 1300 earthquakes in metropolitan France and bordering regions Western Europe. It is based on both published unpublished sources (articles, reports, observatory websites) which the mechanism solutions have been verified internal consistency, corrected cases minor errors rejected major inconsistencies between parameters. The databa...

Temporal clustering of the larger earthquakes (foreshock-mainshockaftershock) followed by relative quiescence (stress shadow) are characteristic of seismic cycles along plate boundaries. A global seismic-moment release history, based on a little more than 100 years of instrumental earthquake data in an extended version of the catalog of Pacheco and Sykes (1992), illustrates similar behavior for...