In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. (Genesis 7:11)
The first of many exact chronological statements in the OT. So careful a statement as to the exact day, month, and year of the Flood stands in sharp contrast to the legendary accounts of ancient pagan peoples concerning the activity of their gods in relation to this world.
The fountains of the great deep.
This earth, which had never before experienced rain (see on Gen. 2:6), was suddenly flooded by huge masses of water. A heavy and incessant rain set in. Simultaneously the crust of the earth was broken open, with the result that masses of water from beneath the surface of the earth gushed forth to work havoc and completely to inundate the once-dry land.