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

Sediment Dynamics and Morphology

  1. Published

    Duration of deposition from decelerating high-density turbidity currents.

    Baas, J. H., Van Dam, R. L. & Storms, J. E., 1 Oct 2000, In: Sedimentary Geology. 136, 1-2, p. 71-88

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  2. Published
  3. Published

    Bedform development in mixed sand–mud: The contrasting role of cohesive forces in flow and bed

    Baas, J. H., Davies, A. G. & Malarkey, J., 15 Jan 2013, In: Geomorphology. 182, p. 19-32

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  4. Published

    Earth Science Editorial.

    Baas, J. H., 1 Jul 2002, In: Annals of the Marie Curie Fellowships. 2, p. 34

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  5. Published

    Turbulence modulation in clay-rich sediment-laden flows and some implications for sediment deposition.

    Baas, J. H. & Best, J. L., 1 Jan 2002, In: Journal of Sedimentary Research. 72, 3, p. 336-340

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  6. 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 conferencePaper

  7. Published

    Ripple, Ripple Mark, Ripple Structure.

    Baas, J. H. & Middleton, G. V. (ed.), 1 Jan 2003, Encyclopedia of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks. 2003 ed. Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 565-567

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

  8. 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 conferencePaper

  9. 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. 101-142

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  10. 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. 12-45

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review