Biografie

1993-1997

Study of Geosciences at the University of Heidelberg, Germany

1998-1999

Diploma Thesis (MSc): Petrostructural studies at the Moldanubian/Tepla-Barrandian boundary; Bavarian Forest (Germany) (Prof. Dr. Angelika Kalt and Prof. Dr. Rainer Altherr)

2000-2005

Ph.D. Thesis at the Free University of Berlin: Exhumation Mechanisms of high pressure rocks in the Western Alpine Sesia-Lanzo zone (Prof. Dr. Mark R. Handy)

2006-2008

Postdoctoral Researcher

Forschung

The focus of my research is to study the connection between the migration of fluids in the Earth’s mantle and crust, the major and trace element transport enabled by the migrating fluids and the fluid-rock interaction, which leads to significant compositional modifications of fluids and wall rock. Understanding fluid mediated element transport and the resulting interaction of the migrating fluid with the wall rock, e.g., by mineral reactions and/or mineral recrystallisation, is essential for the understanding of subduction zone processes, the formation of ore deposits and the overall distribution of major and trace elements between mantle and crust.

The distribution of elements between fluid and wall rocks is controlled by the chemical properties of the fluid, by the mineral paragenesis and mineral reactions in the rocks that are in contact with the fluid as well as by kinetic constraints, such as recrystallisation and element transport, that control the extent of the fluid rock interaction. Insight into these complex processes can be achieved by combining thermodynamic forward models with trace element distribution calculations under consideration of kinetic effects. Thermodynamic forward models yield information about the mineralogical changes in the wall rock as a response to changing pressure, temperature and chemical rock composition, trace element distribution models can then use this information to model a potential trace element distribution among the modeled coexisting phases. The modeled results must then be compared with natural rocks in order to study the effect of different processes on the behaviour of major and trace elements in the fluid-rock system.

Lehre

Former courses:

Structural Geology and Geodynamics (Practicals)

Mapping courses in the Central Alps

Microscopy of Metamorphic Textures (Practical)

Magmatic and Metamorphic Petrology (Lectures)

Current courses:

Geothermobarometry (Lecture MSc)

Thermodynamics for Geoscientists (Lecture MSc)

Publikationen

Konrad-Schmolke, M.; Handy, M.R.; Babist, J. & O´Brien, P.J. (2005). Thermodynamic modelling of diffusion-controlled garnet growth. Contrib.Mineral.Petrol 149 (2): 181-195.

Handy, M.R.; Babist, J.; Wagner, R.; Rosenberg, C. & Konrad-Schmolke, M. (2005). Decoupling and its relation to strain partitioning in continental lithosphere-insight from the Periadriatic Fault system (European Alps). Geol.Soc.Spec.Publ., 243, 249-276.

Konrad-Schmolke, M., Babist, J., Handy, M.R. & O’Brien, P.J. (2006). The physico-chemical properties of a subducted slab from garnet zonation patterns (Sesia Zone, Western Alps) Journal of Petrology 47 (11): 2123-2148.

Babist, J., Handy, M.R., Konrad-Schmolke, M. & Hammerschmidt, K. (2006). Precollisional, multistage exhumation of subducted continental crust: The Sesia Zone, western Alps. Tectonics 25 (6): TC6008.

Konrad-Schmolke, M. (2006). Exhumation Mechanisms of high pressure rocks in the Western Alpine Sesia-Lanzo zone. PhD Thesis at the Freie Universität Berlin.

Konrad-Schmolke, M., O’Brien, P.J. & Heidelbach, F. (2007). Compositional re-equilibration of garnet: the importance of sub-grain boundaries. European Journal of Mineralogy, v. 19, no. 4, p. 431-438.

Konrad-Schmolke, M., O’Brien, P.J., De Capitani, C. and Carswell, D.A. (2008). Garnet growth at high- and ultra-high pressure conditions and the effect of element fractionation on mineral modes and composition. Lithos, DOI: 10.1610/j.lithos.2007.10.007

Konrad-Schmolke, M., Zack, T. and O’Brien, P.J. and Jacob, D. (2008). Major- and rare-earth-element modelling in garnet along eclogite P-T paths, examples from the Western Gneiss Region, Norway. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 272, pp. 488-498.

Wilke, F.D.H., O`Brien, P.J., Altenberger, U., Konrad-Schmolke, M. and Khan, M.A. (2010). Multi-stage reaction history in different eclogite types from the Pakistan Himalaya and implications for exhumation processes. Lithos, in press, doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2009.07.015

Konrad-Schmolke, M., O’Brien, P.J. and Zack, T. (2011). Fluid migration above a subducted slab - Constraints on amount, pathways and major element mobility from partially overprinted eclogite-facies rocks (Sesia-Zone, Western Alps). Journal of Petrology 52 (3): pp. 457-486.

Konrad-Schmolke, M., Zack, T., O’Brien, P.J. and Barth, M. (2011b). Fuid migration above a subducted slab – Thermodynamic and trace element modeling of fluid-rock interaction in partially overprinted eclogite-facies rocks (Sesia Zone, Western Alps). Earth and Planetary Science Letters (311): 287-298.