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
Integrating field and laboratory approaches for ripple development in mixed sand-clay-EPS
Baas, J. H., Baker, M., Malarkey, J., Bass, S. J., Manning, A. J., Hope, J. A., Peakall, J., Lichtman, I., Ye, L., Davies, A., Parsons, D. R., Paterson, D. M. & Thorne, P. D., Dec 2019, In: Sedimentology. 66, 7, p. 2749-2768 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- E-pub ahead of print
Integrating transitional-flow signatures into hybrid event beds: Implications for hybrid flow evolution on a submarine lobe fringe
Łapcik, P. & Baas, J., 4 Sept 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Journal of Sedimentary Research.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Interactions between sediment microbial ecology and physical dynamics drive heterogeneity in contextually similar depositional systems
Hope, J. A., Malarkey, J., Baas, J. H., Peakall, J., Parsons, D., Manning, A. J., Bass, S., Lichtman, I., Thorne, P., Ye, L. & Paterson, D. M., Oct 2020, In: Limnology and Oceanography. 65, 10, p. 2403-2419Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Marine redox dynamics and biotic response to the mid-Silurian Ireviken Extinction Event in a mid-shelf setting
Wang, Y., Wignall, P. B., Xiong, Y., Loydell, D. K., Peakall, J., Baas, J. H., Mills, B. J. W. & Poulton, S. W., 10 May 2024, In: Journal of the Geological Society. 181, 4, jgs2023-155.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Mixed Sand—Mud Bedforms Produced by Transient Turbulent Flows in the Fringe of Submarine Fans: Indicators of Flow Transformation
Baker, M. L. & Baas, J. H., Aug 2020, In: Sedimentology. 67, 5, p. 2645-2671 27 p.Research 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
Preservation of groove mark striae formed by armoured mud clasts: the role of armour sediment size and bed yield stress
Lock, C., Reid, M., Baas, J. & Peakall, J., Sept 2024, In: The Depositional Record. 10, 4, p. 426-440Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Processes and products of turbidity currents entering soft muddy substrates
Baas, J. H., Manica, R., Puhl, E., Verhagen, I. & de O.Borges, A. L., May 2014, In: Geology. 42, 5, p. 371-374Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Rapid gravity flow transformation revealed in a single climbing ripple
Baas, J. H., Best, J. & Peakall, J., 1 May 2021, In: Geology. 49, 5, p. 493-497Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- 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. 95-112Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review