Can rocks have pressure signatures?

Question

Since rocks can have magnetic signatures, as is the case with paleomagnetism, can they store past pressures also? For example, when researchers are trying to determine past ocean levels, they usually look at isotopes. But is there any way they can look at rock morphology to see how high sea levels may have been (maybe a more compressed rock meant higher pressures, meaning higher sea levels and vice versa)?

Answer 1

If you know the mineral assemblage of a rock, you can use the metamorphic facies diagram. I have attached a link to the diagram below. The diagram tells you at what temperature and pressure certain metamorphic rocks are created. Metamorphic rocks are generally created in mountain belts. The change in sea level over geologic time doesn't affect the pressure that is pressing down on a rock. What affects the pressure as well as temperature is how deep in the mountain belt the rocks are located. So to answer your question, we can figure out at what pressure and temperature metamorphic rocks were formed, but it is not due to the changes in sea level.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Temperature-pressure-diagram-showing-the-three-major-types-of-metamorphic-facies-series_fig2_343146115