## 7 Discussion and Conclusions
The focal mechanisms determined in the present study (compression quadrants shown in red, and numbering according to Table 3) along with the focal mechanisms of earthquakes with M \(\geq\) 5.0 were already published (green compression quadrants). Their origin time (YYYY/MM/DD) is shown on the top of the beach balls. The thick gray lines denote the major active boundaries, namely the KTFZ, where the dextral strike slip motion is shown by the antiparallel yellow arrows, and the collision front by the sawtooth line. The prolongation of the KTFZ in the study area, as identified and documented in the present study, is colored in red. The inset map shows the axes of maximum stress, P-axes, as they have been taken from the fault plane solutions shown in the main part of the figure. The thick brown curved arrows follow the P-axis rotation in agreement with the strike slip motion along the KTFZ and the counterclockwise rotation of the Adria microplate. The local fault system sheds more light on the transition from the dextral strike slip motion along the KTFZ to the thrust faulting along the collision front. The thrust component present in the fault plane solutions determined for the stronger earthquakes of the 2019 swarm put in evidence the influence of the compressive stress field to the strike slip faults that are either striking along the KTFZ (the southern ones) or \"kinking\" (the northern one) for compensating the kinematic direction prevalent at this location. The slight but gradually changing rotation in the azimuth of the maximum stress axes, from south (green arrows in Figure 10) to the northernmost edge of the 2019 activated structures (red arrows), supports the hypothesis of a transpression movement in a transition zone between the transform and collision zones. The examination of the \(b\) value changes shows lower values before and higher after the main shock occurrence. A noticeable decrease in the \(b\) value (from 0.6 to 0.5) was observed immediately after the occurrence of the M4.5 foreshock on January 15 2019 and remained low until the main shock occurrence on 5 February 2019. Then, it sharply increased to the values before the M4.5 foreshock and gradually became higher, approaching the value of 0.9. **Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at [[http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/13/4491/s1](http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/13/4491/s1)]([http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/13/4491/s1](http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/13/4491/s1)), Figure S1: Frequency-magnitude distribution (FMD of pre-main shock and post-main shock datasets, Figure S2: Time-series of the \(b\) value of different sample sizes for the pre-main shock dataset, Figure S3: Same as in Figure S2 for the post-main shock dataset. **Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.K., E.P. and V.K. ; methodology, A.K. and P.B. ; software, A.K. and P.B. ; validation, A.K. and P.B. ; formal analysis, A.K. and P.B. ; investigation, A.K. and P.B., data curation, A.K. ; writing--original draft preparation, A.K. and P.B. ; writing--review and editing, E.P. and V.K. ; visualization, A.K. and P.B. ; supervision V.K. and E.P. ; project administration, V.K. and E.P. ; funding acquisition, V.K. ; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. **Funding:** This research is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund--ESF) through the Operational Programme <<Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020>> in the context of the project \"Kinematic properties, active deformation and stochastic modelling of seismogenesis at the Kefalonia-Lefkada transform zone\" (MIS-5047845). **Acknowledgments:** The software Generic Mapping Tools was used to plot the map of the study area [46]. **Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.