Abstract Every mountain range on Earth is unique in its tectonic evolution, but Quaternary climate cooling resulted in alpine landscapes with globally similar landforms such as horn-shaped peaks, cirques and overdeepened valleys. On a global scale, the impact of glacial and periglacial processes on the geometry of mountain ranges and the relative efficiency of glacial and fluvial erosion are still discussed. To address these issues, we analyse a novel, worldwide dataset of more than 16,000 mountain peaks. We relate peak height and steepness to mean elevation and crustal thickness. We show that the geometry of mountain ranges systematically varies with latitude and thus with climate. For peaks of similar height, the steepness increases towards high latitudes, while mean elevation and thickness of the supporting crust decrease. Modelling flexural isostasy based on the topographic load of mountain ranges demonstrates that the crustal thickness required to support peaks of similar height dramatically declines with intensity of glacial erosion. In concert with latitudinal trends in peak steepness, mean elevation and crustal thickness, this shows that Quaternary climate cooling reduces the topographic load by transforming the geometry of mountain landscapes from fluvial to glacial conditions. We conclude that the prevalence of glacial erosion in cold climate reduces the topographic load of mountain ranges and enables the growth of high mountain peaks even on moderately over-thickened crust.

中文翻译：

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冰川侵蚀促进了薄地壳上的高山

摘要 地球上每个山脉的构造演化都是独一无二的，但第四纪气候变冷导致高山地貌具有全球相似的地貌，如角状山峰、圆环和过深的山谷。在全球范围内，仍在讨论冰川和冰缘过程对山脉几何形状的影响以及冰川和河流侵蚀的相对效率。为了解决这些问题，我们分析了一个包含 16,000 多个山峰的新型全球数据集。我们将峰高和陡度与平均海拔和地壳厚度联系起来。我们表明山脉的几何形状随纬度和气候系统地变化。对于高度相似的山峰，陡度向高纬度增加，而支撑地壳的平均高程和厚度减小。基于山脉地形载荷的弯曲均衡建模表明，支撑类似高度的山峰所需的地壳厚度随着冰川侵蚀的强度而急剧下降。与峰陡度、平均海拔和地壳厚度的纬度趋势一致，这表明第四纪气候变冷通过将山地景观的几何形状从河流条件转变为冰川条件来降低地形负荷。我们得出的结论是，寒冷气候下冰川侵蚀的盛行降低了山脉的地形负荷，即使在适度过厚的地壳上也能生长高山峰。