Dr Jaco Baas
Reader in Ocean Sciences

Contact info
Position: Reader
Room: 305 Craig Mair
Phone: 01248 382894
E-mail: j.baas@bangor.ac.uk
Web: Google Scholar, ResearchGate
I am Reader in Fine Particle Dynamics in the School of Ocean Sciences, and specialise in the erosion, transport, and deposition of fine, cohesive sediment. I graduated from the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands) with a combined BSc/MSc in Sedimentary Geology in 1988. At the same university, I completed my PhD in Bedform Dynamics in 1993. Subsequently, I was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Geomar Research Centre in Kiel, Germany (studying Late-Pleistocene climate signals in slope sediments from the North-Atlantic continental margin), at the University of Rouen, France (on resuspension processes in the Seine estuary and gravel mining in the English Channel), and at the University of Bergen, Norway (investigating grain orientations in turbidite deposits).
In 1998, I moved to the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds, where I started as a Marie Curie Research Fellow and then became a Senior Research Fellow. My research in Leeds included the physical properties of particulate density currents and their deposits and the dynamics of turbulence-modulated flows carrying cohesive clay particles. I took up my present post in Bangor in January 2007.
I am a process sedimentologist with more than 25 years of experience in sediment transport in fluvial, shallow marine, and deep-marine environments. My main fundamental and applied research interests include physical and biological cohesion in fine-grained sediment, the dynamics of sedimentary bedforms, and sediment gravity flows in the deep ocean, but my expertise also stretches to hydraulic engineering, palaeoclimatology, and mathematical modelling. I combine experimental research with field work to answer timely research questions, taking a blue-skies approach as well as collaborating with industry.
Research Area
- Published
Can vertical stacking of low-angle bedforms produce rhythmic bedding in slurry flow deposits?
Baas, J. H., Best, J. L. & Peakall, J., 1 Jan 2007.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
- Published
Ripple, Ripple Mark, Ripple Structure.
Baas, J. H. & Middleton, G. V. (Editor), 1 Jan 2003, Encyclopedia of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks. 2003 ed. Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 565-567Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
- Published
Can sedimentological flows with small amounts of clay particles form massive sandstone beds?
Baas, J. H. & Best, J. L., 1 Jan 2001.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
- Published
Directional petrological characterisation of deep-marine sandstones using grain fabric and permeability anisotropy: methodologies, theory, application and suggestions for integration.
Baas, J. H., Hailwood, E. A., McCaffrey, W. D., Kay, M. & Jones, R., 1 May 2007, In: Earth Science Reviews. 82, 1-2, p. 101-142Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Predicting bedforms and primary current stratification in cohesive mixtures of mud and sand
Baas, J. H., Best, J. L. & Peakall, J., Jan 2016, In: Journal of the Geological Society. 173, 1, p. 12-45Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Turbulence modulation in clay-laden flows over ripples and dunes.
Baas, J. H. & Best, J. L., 1 Jan 2005.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
- Published
Clay-laden currents: transition between turbulent and laminar flow and implications for the genesis of massive sand beds.
Baas, J. H. & Best, J. L., 1 Jan 2000.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
- Published
Looking inside turbidity currents: the effects of spatial and temporal changes in velocity, concentration and grain size on depositional properties.
Baas, J. H., McCaffrey, W. D., Choux, C. & Haughton, P. D., 1 Jan 2003.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
- Published
On the flow of natural clay suspensions over smooth and rough beds.
Baas, J. H. & Best, J. L., 1 Jan 2008.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
- Published
Submarine Mass Movements and their Consequences, by J. Locat, & J. Mienert
Baas, J. H. & Strachan, L., 1 May 2005, Unknown.Research output: Other contribution
- Published
Flow dynamics and depositional properties of cohesive mixed sand-mud currents with transient turbulent behaviour.
Baas, J. H., Best, J. L., Peakall, J., McCaffrey, B. & Wang, M., 1 Jan 2006.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
- Published
TDURE : A mathematical model for the duration of deposition from decelerating high-density turbidity currents.
Baas, J. H., Van Dam, R. L. & Storms, J. E., 1 Jan 2000, p. 74-75.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper
- Published
Confined Turbidite Systems, by S.A. Lomas & P. Joseph
Baas, J. H., 1 Jan 2004, Unknown.Research output: Other contribution