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

    Reversed sediment wave migration in the Irish Sea, NW Europe: A reappraisal of the validity of geometry-based predictive modelling and assumptions

    Van Landeghem, K. J., Baas, J. H., Mitchell, N., Wilcockson, D. & Wheeler, A. J., 15 Feb 2012, In: Marine Geology. 295-298, p. 95-112

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  2. Published

    Ripple formation induced by biogenic mounds – Comment

    Baas, J. H. & Best, J. L., 15 Aug 2000, In: Marine Geology. 168, 1-4, p. 145-151

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  3. 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

  4. Published
  5. Published

    Sediment Composition Influences Spatial Variation in the Abundance of Human Pathogen Indicator Bacteria within an Estuarine Environment

    Perkins, T. L., Clements, K., Baas, J. H., Jago, C. F., Jones, D. L., Malham, S. K. & McDonald, J. E., 14 Nov 2014, In: PLoS ONE. 9, 11

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  6. Published

    Sediment gravity flows: Recent advances in process and field analysis – Introduction

    Baas, J. H., 1 Aug 2005, In: Sedimentary Geology. 179, 1-2, p. 1-3

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  7. Published

    Sole marks reveal deep-marine depositional process and environment: implications for flow transformation and hybrid event bed models

    Baas, J., Tracey, N. D. & Peakall, J., 4 Oct 2021, In: Journal of Sedimentary Research. 91, 9, p. 986–1009

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  8. Published

    Spatio-temporal evolution of velocity structure, concentration and grainsize stratification within experimental particulate gravity currents.

    McCaffrey, W. D., Choux, C. M., Baas, J. H. & Haughton, P. D., 1 Jun 2003, In: Marine and Petroleum Geology. 20, 6-8, p. 851-860

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  9. Published

    Sticky stuff: Redefining bedform prediction in modern and ancient environments

    Schindler, R. J., Parsons, D. R., Ye, L., Hope, J. A., Baas, J. H., Peakall, J., Manning, A. J., Aspden, R. J., Malarkey, J., Simmons, S., Paterson, D. M., Lichtman, I. D., Davies, A. G., Thorne, P. D. & Bass, S. J., 27 Mar 2015, In: Geology.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  10. Published

    Streamwise turbulence modulation in non-uniform open-channel clay suspension flows

    de Vet, M. G. W., Fernandez, R., Baas, J. H., McCaffrey, W. D. & Dorrell, R. M., Aug 2023, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 128, 8, e2022JF006781.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review