If I may inject...sure the initial burst from the water pressure would be enormous, you say it would cook the earth from the heat of pressure.. But any time you have pressure and then a sudden release the pressure would drop considerable, causing the heat to drop, and lets not forget it took 40 days not forth minutes, Then also we have rain, not just a sprinkle but monsoons, huge amount of water falling from the sky, and what does rain do, cool,, in itself, it is cool water, so it would have a cooling effect. If it stayed at vapor it would not have been raining from the start. Here again we are told only that the water covered the earth and no life was spared. God did not give us all the degrees and angles of the rush of water, Noah could have been on the other side of the earth for all we know. God said he closed the door of the ark and the rain began to fall then the fountain of the deep where released. it could have been released slower than we think or say......after all He is God, and could have control the rate of release.... 8-)