In this work, we solve an open problem mentioned in Xiao (2010) and provide sharp bounds on the rate of growth of maximal moments for stationary symmetric stable random fields using structure theorem of finitely generated abelian groups and ergodic theory of quasi-invariant group actions. We also investigate the relationship between this rate of growth and the path regularity properties of self-similar stable random fields with stationary increments, and establish uniform modulus of continuity of such fields. In the process, a new notion of weak effective dimension is introduced for stable random fields and is connected to maximal moments and path properties. Our results establish a boundary between shorter and longer memory in relation to Holder continuity of S alpha S random fields confirming a conjecture of Samorodnitsky (2004).