Geomorphology for Dummies

Alexander Petkov of the Omega news portal has directed a wee film called "Betrayed Alive".

The film contends that, during the floods on the Prut river earlier this year, the AIE government broke dikes protecting Moldovan villages as part of a secret agreement with the Romanian government to protect the major Romanian city of Galati further downstream.

Zimbru got interested and opened up Google Earth to have a closer look.  Zimbru noticed the following:

• at the point where the Prut flows into the Danube at Giurgiulesti, the water level is 3m above sea level
• the level of the Danube at the western end of Galati is about 5m above sea level
• with the exception of a small industrial area to the east of Galati, most of the city sits on a terrace at elevations of 25m to 50m
• across the river from Galati, around the village of I C Bratianu, sits a broad flood plain which has elevations even lower than the river itself, protected by an earth dam.

The upshot is that, if the Moldovan dikes hadn't broken, any excess water would have found its way into the Danube and possibly into the flood plain mentioned above.  This is what happened during the spring flooding on the Danube a couple of years ago, flooding which involved much greater quantities of water than the recent events on the Prut.  In any case the city of Galati would have been high and dry, just as it was back then.

Mr Petkov and all his communist friends bad-mouthing the AIE are a bunch of liars.  Stupid ones at that.  Someone should  explain to them (and the poor countryfolk they are lying to) that water doesn't flow uphill.