How did mountain glaciers change during the Neoglacial period?

During the Neoglacial period, which occurred as global conditions cooled following the middle Holocene, mountain glaciers in the middle latitudes experienced intermittent periods of advancing and retreating. These fluctuations were reminiscent of, though significantly more modest than, the major advances and retreats of continental ice sheets observed during the Pleistocene Epoch.1

The movement of these glaciers is a dynamic response to changes in their net mass balance, which is determined by local heat-exchange processes and climate conditions. While a glacier's advance or retreat provides evidence of climate change, it is difficult to determine the exact meteorological cause—such as increased snowfall or decreased melting—solely by observing the terminus. For mountain glaciers, the time scale for this dynamic response is typically between 10 and 100 years.2