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


Devil Snow

By Zoe Courville · February 4, 2009 · comments 3 comments
RECOVERY LAKES, ANTARCTICA-- We've spent the last 3 weeks, the majority of our science days, in a region known as Recovery Lakes, or the Lake District as we affectionately call it. This system of several lakes, recently discovered, are subglacial-- that is, they are below... {Read More »}


Pits

By Zoe Courville · February 2, 2009 · comments 1 comment
RECOVERY LAKES, ANTARCTICA-- The last month has been a blur of flying snow from my shovel and endless white vistas seen from the windscreen of Jack, the finicky TL6 Berco I take turns driving. Even now, as Ole, our traverse doctor, drives Jack, I am typing in the back seat... {Read More »}


Ripple in Still Water…

By Zoe Courville · January 30, 2009 · comments No comments yet
RECOVERY LAKE ‘B’, ANTARCTICA– We are currently camped out in the Recovery Lakes region, and one of the main features of the snow surface is that it is flat, flat, flat... {Read More »}


It’s the Snow, Stupid!

By Zoe Courville · January 26, 2009 · comments No comments yet
RECOVERY LAKE 'B', ANTARCTICA-- It's the snow, stupid! …that determines many factors for this traverse, that is. For instance, the changing snow surface impacts our fuel consumption quite a bit. In softer snow, the four vehicles use much more fuel... {Read More »}


Pack It Up, Pack It In!

By Zoe Courville · January 23, 2009 · comments No comments yet
SOUTH POLE STATION, ANTARCTICA– Let it begin! Another concerted effort today to get the train packed up. We will have an open house this evening for our fellow residents of the South Pole, and so we are also trying to clean up a little bit... {Read More »}


On the Way to the South Pole

By Zoe Courville · December 29, 2008 · comments 3 comments
BETWEEN CAMP WINTER & SOUTH POLE, ANTARCTICA-- For three days straight now, we've been driving from Camp Winter to South Pole-- driving 24-hours a day, in shifts of 6 hours on, 6 hours off, with 2 hours for dinner. My body has weirdly adjusted to the schedule, with the offshoot that it's hard to tell what time of day it is, or what day it is, anymore... {Read More »}


Camp Winter

By Zoe Courville · December 23, 2008 · comments 1 comment
CAMP WINTER, ANTARCTICA-- What can I say about a place named Camp Winter? Of all names, it is appropriate: desolate, cold and windy. It's mind boggling sometimes to think how remote we are, the eight of us, and what minimal buffer we have between us and the vast, cold ice sheet... {Read More »}


If All Goes According to Plan…

By Zoe Courville · November 26, 2008 · comments 4 comments
SOUTH POLE STATION, ANTARCTICA-- The Basler plane we've been waiting for finally came, from McMurdo, and we were able to load it up and send it off to Camp Winter with cargo... {Read More »}


Stuck at the South Pole

By Zoe Courville · November 25, 2008 · comments 3 comments
SOUTH POLE STATION, ANTARCTICA-- South Pole is a constant construction site. The new station is still being finished up, but is very nice inside, sort of a cross between a high school building and space station... {Read More »}


Cargo, Cargo Everywhere

By Zoe Courville · November 24, 2008 · comments No comments yet
SOUTH POLE STATION, ANTARCTICA-- So far in this trip, the main goal of the team has been to sort and pack our cargo. We have 21,000 lbs going out to Camp Winter alone, not including the food and supplies for the trip from South Pole to Troll which we will start mid-December... {Read More »}

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »