A new model for Cenozoic strain partitioning is proposed here for the Central System at the Messejana
(Plasencia) fault zone. It explains the simultaneous movement of parallel NE-SW trending thrust and strikeslip
faults within a global N-S compression. This process could account for local bends in the shmax trajectories,
from NW-SE trending close to the Ponsul-Gata and Gredos thrusts to NE-SW trending along the Messejana
left-lateral strike-slip fault. This structural pattern may change current thinking with regard to the paleostress
evolution of the Iberia foreland during the Cenozoic