Earth’s topography and climate result from the competition between uplift and erosion, but it has been debated whether rivers or glaciers are more effective erosional agents. We present a global compilation of fluvial and glacial erosion rates alongside simple numerical experiments, which show that the “Sadler effect,” wherein geological rates show an inverse relationship with measurement timescale, comprises three distinct effects: a measurement thickness bias, a bias of erosion and redeposition, and a bias introduced by not observing quiescent intervals. Furthermore, we find that, globally, average glacial erosion rates exceed fluvial erosion rates through time by an order of magnitude, and that this difference cannot be explained by Sadlerian biases or by variations in hillslope, precipitation, or latitude. These findings support observations of increased erosion rates following Cenozoic cooling and glaciation, and reveal the importance of glacial erosion over millennial to orogenic timescales.

中文翻译：

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侵蚀速率对时间尺度依赖性的限制：跨时间尺度量化冰川和河流侵蚀


地球的地形和气候是隆起和侵蚀之间竞争的结果，但河流或冰川是更有效的侵蚀因素一直存在争议。我们提出了河流和冰川侵蚀速率的全球汇编以及简单的数值实验，结果表明“萨德勒效应”，其中地质速率与测量时间尺度呈反比关系，包括三个不同的影响：测量厚度偏差、侵蚀和再沉积偏差，以及因未观察到静止间隔而引入的偏差。此外，我们发现，在全球范围内，平均冰川侵蚀率随着时间的推移比河流侵蚀率高出一个数量级，并且这种差异不能用萨德勒偏差或山坡、降水或纬度的变化来解释。这些发现支持了对新生代冷却和冰川作用后侵蚀速率增加的观察，并揭示了冰川侵蚀在千年到造山时间尺度上的重要性。