As summarized under deformation band thickness properties, single shear bands and compaction bands have characteristic average maximum thicknesses on the order of one millimeter to a couple centimeters, shear bands representing the lower end of this range. It is believed that shear band thickness depends somewhat on the micromechanics of the deformation and grain size of the granular rock in which they occur (Fossen et al., 2007). In general, thinner bands occur in fine-grained rocks and are characteristic of the shear bands formed by the cataclastic deformation mechanism (see the shear bands thickness distribution plot under 'Shear Band Thickness.' Figure 1 shows detailed trends of the length-thickness trends of single and zones of shear bands and shear bands with slip surfaces.

Figure 1. Log–Log plot of thickness vs. length for single shear bands (in blue), zones of shear bands (in red), and shear bands with slip surfaces (in green). Best linear fits for each structure type are also shown. From Tondi et al. (2012).