Ice Stories
Exploratorium Home

Zoe CourvilleZoe Courville studies snow and ice in the Arctic and Antarctica. She has a PhD in material science and works as a research mechanical engineer at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab in Hanover, New Hampshire. During the summer of 2008, Zoe’s research took her to the top of the Greenland Ice Cap. From November 2008 through February 2009, she’s reporting from along a 1,865-mile (3,000 km) journey from the South Pole to Troll Station as part of the Norwegian–U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica. Zoe loves working in the polar regions and sharing her experiences with others.

Project Page: Into the Great White Open

All Posts By Zoe Courville


First UAV Flight in East Antarctica

By Zoe Courville · September 25, 2009 · comments 1 comment
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE-- Andreas Tollefsen of Norut (Northern Research Institute) in Norway, was in charge of flying the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) we had along with us on the traverse. The UAV carried a payload of... {Read More »}


Visitors on the Antarctic Plateau

By Zoe Courville · September 16, 2009 · comments 1 comment
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE-- In the middle of our traverse, we had the rather surreal experience of being visited by a French film crew making a documentary about research work in Antarctica. The crew flew in on a Basler... {Read More »}


Meet Ole, Our Doctor

By Zoe Courville · September 14, 2009 · comments No comments yet
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE-- Our traverse doctor, Ole Tveiten, luckily did not have much to do as a doctor, so he was put to work logging the cores, measuring and weighing them... {Read More »}


Meet Lou, Our Driller

By Zoe Courville · September 11, 2009 · comments No comments yet
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE-- Lou is our amazing driller for the traverse. Luckily for us, she is one of the best drillers in the business, having worked both in Greenland and Antarctica... {Read More »}


Meet Svein, Our Mechanic

By Zoe Courville · September 9, 2009 · comments No comments yet
HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE-- On a 4 month trip across Antarctica with 12 people, everyone has a pretty crucial job to perform. But some of us are more essential... {Read More »}


A Rare Greenlandic Snow Penguin Sighting

By Zoe Courville · September 4, 2009 · comments No comments yet
NEEM CAMP, GREENLAND-- The question that I probably get asked most often (besides “did you see any penguins?”) about my trips to the poles is what evidence I’ve seen for climate change... {Read More »}


In the Trenches

By Zoe Courville · August 25, 2009 · comments No comments yet
NEEM CAMP, GREENLAND-- Over at the deep drilling site, work continues day and night. There are two shifts of drillers and core handlers who work around the clock... {Read More »}


Hello from NEEM!

By Zoe Courville · August 20, 2009 · comments No comments yet
NEEM CAMP, GREENLAND-- After yesterday's Herc flight from Kangerlussuaq on the coast to the NEEM drilling camp on the Greenland ice sheet in which we circled camp several times but were not able to land due to thick ground fog (and diminishing fuel!), today we were able to land at camp. Finally... {Read More »}


Welcome to Greenland!

By Zoe Courville · July 15, 2009 · comments 2 comments
KANGERLUSSUAQ, GREENLAND-- Today Kaitlin Keegan, a first year PhD student at Dartmouth College, and my field assistant, and I flew from Scotia, NY, to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, our first stop on the way up to the Danish deep drilling camp, NEEM... {Read More »}


The Stuck Drill Story

By Zoe Courville · February 6, 2009 · comments 10 comments
RECOVERY LAKES, ANTARCTICA-- Leaving site 5! Today we are finally on the move again, after a prolonged stay at our science stop at site 5 in the middle of the Recovery Lakes area. We were delayed after our ice core drill was stuck 90m down in the hole Lou was drilling... {Read More »}

« Older Entries