Image of Greenland's Zachariae Isstrom glacier as seen by the NASA/USGS Landsat satellite. The steady change in the glacier can be seen in photos from 1975 to today. The green lines show the loss of ice. (NASA/USGS)

A new study has shown a glacier located in northeast Greenland, called the Zachariæ Isstrøm, is melting at an accelerated rate and will increase sea-level rise for decades to come, according to findings published in the journal. The researchers made their conclusions after focusing in on the glacier and culling through years of aerial satellite imagery from NASA, which showed the icy mass was "breaking up and calving high volumes of icebergs into the ocean."

“The retreat is fast; the glacier will impact sea level rise,” Jeremie Mouginot, lead author of the study told weather.com, “It’s a warning that climate warming is spreading to all four corners of Greenland. I’ve explained it as Greenland is like a boat. And now we’re taking water from all four sides.”

(The images in the slideshow above show the changes in glacier as seen by the NASA/USGS Landsat satellite.)

The glacier has the potential to raise sea levels 18 inches if it were to completely melt. The Zachariæ Isstrømshelf was "stable until 2002-2003 when a large section broke off," the study notes. The glacier is now 95 percent smaller than it was in 2002.

“We thought the Northeast region of Greenland was stable and here we see this glacier,” Mouginot said. “The last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report listed the glacier as stable; they will have to update it after this. Policy makers will have to take this study into account.”

The assessments that the IPCC puts out help politicians understand the scale of climate change. IPCC spokesman Jonathan Lynn said thescientific intergovernmental body would likely consider this new finding when putting together their next report.

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Glacier expert and associate dean at Vanderbilt University Dan Morgan observed that the geography of glaciers play a factor in how fast they melt.

"As the authors note, the rapid grounding line retreat is driven mostly by warmer ocean temperatures, which is in part due to warmer air temperatures, but also changes in circulation patterns,” Morgan said. “Another interesting aspect is that the neighboring glacier, the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden, is melting too, but retreating at a slower rate because of the topography of its basin.

"The last thing that stood out to me is that the rates of processes have changed so much recently. Geologists are always thinking about rates of processes, and one of the alarming things about human-induced climate change has always been the rapid rate of change that is possible with higher concentrations of greenhouse gases. To geologists, it’s not that the change that is the main issue, it’s the rate of change that makes climate change so hard for natural systems to adapt," Morgan said.

(MORE:Global Warming Could Cause Europe’s Biggest Glacier to Vanish By 2100)

GlaciologistEllyn Enderlinwas surprised by the "strong evidence that even glaciers in the far north are susceptible to the effects of atmosphere and ocean warming."

"Glaciers in northern Greenlandwere thought to be fairly stable because of colder air and ocean temperatures (and accordingly, lower melt rates)," Enderlin said."It may take years or even decades for the remaining glaciers with large floating ice tongues in Greenland to respond to changing environmental conditions, depending on the glacier geometry, but it looks like we should expect to see increased iceberg discharge and mass loss from northern Greenland in the years to come."

MORE ON WEATHER.COM:Greenland Global Warming(PHOTOS)

Tim Elam works on deploying the Ice Diver, which if successful will melt its way through the ice with electrical heating. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)