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
- Article › Research › Peer-reviewed
- Published
Conditions for formation of massive turbiditic sandstones by primary depositional processes.
Baas, J. H., 1 Apr 2004, In: Sedimentary Geology. 166, 3-4, p. 292-310Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Coupling between suspended sediment distribution and turbulence structure in a laboratory turbidity current.
Baas, J. H., McCaffrey, W. D., Haughton, P. D. & Choux, C., 1 Jan 2005, In: Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans. 110, c11, p. C11015Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- 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 journal › Article › peer-review
- 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. 1953-1987Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- 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. 1053-1088Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- 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
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 journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Distinguishing microbially induced sedimentary structures from fluid-induced interfacial deformation structures (MISS versus FIDS)
Wignall, P. B., Peakall, J., Best, J. & Baas, J., 7 Mar 2025, In: The Geological Society Special Publications. 556, 1Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- 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 journal › Article › peer-review
- 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. 71-88Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review