Tectonic stresses lead to the deformation of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle. They are the
driving force behind plate motion and mountain building, and they control earthquake distribution and intensity. These stresses can be measured from deformation microstructures of previously deeply buried rocks using paleo-piezometers. A new assessment of microstructural data from naturally deformed quartz-bearing rocks indicates that the mechanism of recrystallization fundamentally affects the piezometers. Our findings point out major inaccuracies of stress estimates published in the last 40 years, and it prepares the field for a new piezometer generation that will provide a significantly improved assessment of the stress states in lithospheric plates and plate boundaries
