It is well known that shear displacement across single shear bands is quite small. Aydin (1978) reported that shear displacement across the bands in the Entrada and Navajo sandstones at the San Rafael Desert and Arches National Park (both in Utah) is on the order of a few millimeters, rarely to a few centimeters. Figure 1 is a plot of shear band displacement data collected from the bands in the Jurassic sandstones of the Colorado Plateau by various workers, which shows that the maximum value is slightly above 3 centimeters with the mean values being 3.4 and 4.1 millimeters (compilation by Davatzes and Aydin, 2003 from different studies).

Figure 1. Displacement distribution for single shear bands with cataclastic deformation mechanism in the Jurassic sandstones of the Colorado Plateau collected by various authors (Antonellini and Aydin, 1994; Fossen and Hesthammer, 1997; and Davatzes and Aydin, 2003 (D and A in the explanation)). The mean values of the shear displacements are 3.4 and 4.1 mm and the maximum is slightly above 3 cm. From Davatzes and Aydin (2003).

Figure 2 shows displacement frequency data collected from shear bands in the carbonate grainstone cropping out in the island of Favignana, west of Sicily. The data shows that the distribution of displacements across shear bands (both single and zone) is limited in magnitude and is linear in form but the well-developed shear bands with slip surfaces have relatively larger displacements.

Figure 2. Log-log plot of the thickness-displacement data collected from shear bands occurring in carbonate grainstone cropping out in the island of Favignana, west of Sicily. The data divided into single shear bands (blue), zones of shear bands (red), and zones of shear bands with slip surfaces (green). All show roughly linear trends with somewhat differing slopes. From Tondi et al. (2012).

There is little data for the closure across single compaction bands. Calculated from the maximum thickness and the average measured porosity reduction (about 50%) from Mollema and Antonellini, 1996; Sternlof et al., 2005; Schultz et al., 2008; and Aydin and Ahmadov, 2009, a closure range of about 0.1 to 1.25 cm appears to be reasonable.