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

    Critical parameters for cross-fault flow within deep marine clastic reservoirs: An integrated 3D stratigraphic and structural approach.

    Bradbury, P. W., Freeman, S. R., Harris, S. D., Knipe, R. J., McCaffrey, W. D. & Baas, J. H., 1 Jan 2004.

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

  2. Published

    Current- and Wave-Generated Bedforms on Mixed Sand–Clay Intertidal Flats: A New Bedform Phase Diagram and Implications for Bed Roughness and Preservation Potential

    Baas, J., Malarkey, J., Lichtman, I. D., Amoudry, L. O., Thorne, P., Hope, J. A., Peakall, J., Paterson, D. M., Bass, S., Cooke, R. D., Manning, A. J., Parsons, D. & Ye, L., 3 Nov 2021, In: Frontiers Earth Science. 9, 747567.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  3. Published

    Depositional processes, bedform development and hybrid bed formation in rapidly decelerated cohesive (mud–sand) sediment flows

    Baas, J. H., Best, J. L. & Peakall, J., 1 Dec 2011, In: Sedimentology. 58, 7, p. 1953-1987

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  4. Published

    Deposits of depletive high-density turbidity currents: a flume analogue of bed geometry, structure and texture.

    Baas, J. H., Van Kesteren, W. & Postma, G., 1 Oct 2004, In: Sedimentology. 51, 5, p. 1053-1088

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  5. Published

    Detection and quantification of suspended sediment concentration and stratification in open channel flows: development and first results using electrical resistance tomography.

    Schlaberg, H. I., Baas, J. H., Wang, M., Best, J. L., Williams, R. A. & Peakall, J., 5 Sept 2005.

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

  6. Published

    Detection and quantification of suspension concentrations and sedimentation layers in channel flows using electrical resistance tomography.

    Schlaberg, H. I., Baas, J. H., Wang, M., Best, J. L., Williams, R. A. & Peakall, J., 1 Jan 2005.

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

  7. 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

  8. Published

    Discontinuity in Equilibrium Wave–Current Ripple Size and Shape and Deep cleaning associated with Cohesive Sand–Clay Beds

    Wu, X., Fernández, R., Baas, J., Malarkey, J. & Parsons, D. R., Sept 2022, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 127, 9, p. e2022JF006771 e2022JF006771.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  9. Published

    Does sand promote or hinder the mobility of cohesive sediment gravity flows?

    Baker, M. L. & Baas, J., Feb 2023, In: Sedimentology. 70, 4, p. 1110-1130 21 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  10. 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

  11. Published

    Dynamics and deposition of sediment-bearing multi-pulsed flows and geological implication

    Ho, V. L., Dorrell, R. M., Keevil, G., Thomas, R. E., Burns, A. D., Baas, J. H. & McCaffrey, W. D., Nov 2019, In: Journal of Sedimentary Research. 89, 11, p. 1127-1139

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  12. Published

    EZ-ROSE: a computer program for equal-area circular histograms and statistical analysis of two-dimensional vectorial data.

    Baas, J. H., 1 Mar 2000, In: Computers and Geosciences. 26, 2, p. 153-166

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  13. 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

  14. Published

    Earth Science Editorial.

    Baas, J. H., 1 Feb 2004, In: Annals of the Marie Curie Fellowships. 3, p. 42

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  15. Published

    Effect of biological polymers on mobility and run-out distance of cohesive and non-cohesive sediment gravity flows

    Sobocinska, A. & Baas, J., 1 Oct 2022, In: Marine Geology. 452, 106904.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  16. Published

    Electrical resistance tomography for suspended sediment measurements in open channel flows using a novel sensor design.

    Schlaberg, H. I., Baas, J. H., Wang, M., Best, J. L., Williams, R. A. & Peakall, J., 1 Oct 2006, In: Particle and Particle Systems Characterization. 23, 3-4, p. 313-320

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  17. Published

    Enhanced fault seal evaluation of turbidite systems in mature basins: Examples from around the globe.

    Bradbury, P. W., Freeman, S. R., Harris, S. D., Knipe, R. J., McCaffrey, W. D., Baas, J. H. & Lewis, G., 1 Jan 2005.

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

  18. Published

    Experimental Research on Hydraulics and Depositional Mechanisms of High-Density Turbidity Currents.

    Baas, J. H., 1 Jan 2000, 2000 ed. Unknown.

    Research output: Book/ReportCommissioned report

  19. Published

    Experimental constraints on shear mixing rates and processes: implications for the dilution of submarine debris flows

    Talling, P. J., Peakall, J., Sparks, R. S., O'Cofaigh, C., Dowdeswell, J. A., Felix, M., Wynn, R. B., Baas, J. H., Hogg, A. J., Masson, D. G., Taylor, J. & Weaver, P. P., 1 Jan 2002, Glacier-Influenced Sedimentation on High-Latitude Continental Margins. 2002 ed. Geological Society Publishing House, p. 89-104

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

  20. Published

    Experimental model for turbulence modulation in natural clay-laden flows.

    Baas, J. H., Best, J. L., Peakall, J. & Wang, M., 1 Jan 2006.

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

  21. Published

    Experimental passive fill of U-shaped burrows.

    Kellman, P., Baas, J. H., Best, J. L. & Uchman, A., 1 Jan 2005.

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

  22. Published

    Experimental turbidity current transport and deposition using scaled realistic bathymetry.

    Baas, J. H., McCaffrey, W. D., Pattaci, M. & Wyton, J., 1 Jan 2006.

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

  23. Published

    Fine Sediment Dynamics in the Marine Environment, by J.C. Winterwerp & C. Kranenberg

    Baas, J. H. & Felix, M., 1 Jan 2003, Unknown.

    Research output: Other contribution

  24. Published

    Flow behaviour of ponded turbidity currents: an experimental study.

    Patacci, M., McCaffrey, W. M., Haughton, P., Baas, J. H. & Keevil, G., 1 Jan 2008.

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

  25. 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 conferencePaper