the ellesmere ice shelf was reduced by 90 per cent in the twentieth century, leaving the separate alfred ernest, ayles, milne, ward hunt, and markham ice shelves. a 1986 survey of canadian ice shelves found that 48 km². (3.3 cubic kilometres) of ice calved from the milne and ayles ice shelves between 1959 and 1974. the ayles ice shelf calved entirely on august 13, 2005. the ward hunt ice shelf, the largest remaining section of thick (>10 m) landfast sea ice along the northern coastline of ellesmere island, lost 600 square km of ice in a massive calving in 1961–1962. it further decreased by 27% in thickness (13 m) between 1967 and 1999. in summer 2002, the ward ice shelf experienced another major breakup, and other instances of note happened in 2008 and 2010 as well.