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Is a complete global flood physically possible on Earth?

Genesis 7:11-20presents an account of a precipitation event which, in 40 days, submerges the entire surface of the earth:

[On] the seventeenth day of the second month — on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened…

For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth… all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits [6.86 m].

Based on this account, my questions are:

Given the amount of water on Earth (including all the water as liquid, solid, and gas, in all possible places: the atmosphere, the surface, and underground), is there enough water to flood the whole earth until ‘all the high mountains… were covered’?
估计降雨强度根据是什么this description, and how intense is it in comparison with today’s rainfall intensity in tropical areas?

Regardless of the veracity or otherwise of the account, this makes for an interesting thought experiment.

Answer

there is not enough existing water inside this geosystem IMO for such a thing to occur. Let's see these figures here: [One estimate of global water distribution][1] Oceans, Seas, & Bays 1,338,000,000 -- 96.54% of all water this figure means that most of the existing water at the global scale is seawater. Sea floor is quite irregular, with some abyss like pits (ex: Mariana trench), up to low water in shallow sea near continents and islands (See figure). A variable topography overall ![Sea depth - division][2] This mean that considering the current volume of existing sea water, at say an average of 3 km depth (hypothetical, but it doesn't change the overall reasoning), and removing the continents, you would have to double, and probably more than double the current volume of sea water to raise the oceanic water level of 1 km, 2 km etc... or ~5 km if we consider MT Ararat. Here is some hypothetically (rough) calculation to illustrate. Let's say the Earth have a surface area of 510 million km<sup>2</sup> ([Wikipedia][3]) and the overall global water (USGS link in my post) amount to 1386 million km<sup>2</sup>. Dividing the volume by the surface provides the height, as shown by this dimensional analysis :$\frac {L^3}{L^2}=L$, which would amount to 2.71 km in height in this case. But let's not forget that this figure imply **a)** the impermeability of the surface **b)** the surface flatness. Multiple problems further arise when considering how such an amount of hypothetical water could be suspended at once - there is a interesting debunking explaining implications here: [Talk Origins - 5. the Flood itself][4] I think [@Pont][5] nicely answered the subquestion about the precipitation rate [1]: https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html [2]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/cw8RF.png [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth [4]: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html#flood [5]: //www.hoelymoley.com/a/4721/2810

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$\begingroup$ If we were to assume the earth was completely flat (no mountains) (notflat as in not round). how high/thick would the layer of all water on earth be? (assuming it is all equally distributed and there are no tidal forces) would it be 1km? $\endgroup$
–Vincent
Apr 22, 2015 at 12:05
1

$\begingroup$ @Vincent Advocaat I added some relevant info in the answer as a follow-up to your question $\endgroup$
–marsisalie
Apr 22, 2015 at 13:25

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