What Temperature is Required to Break a Water Molecule?

[girlzrule786]

Hello,
I was confused about which bond is stronger, ionic or covalent... thinking and searching about that, I found (or better, realized) that when we talk about the boiling point of water, its just that it's INTERMOLECULAR forces get weaker, not the covalent bond present between the ATOMS ...

coming to my question,
how much temperature needs to be provided to break a MOLECULE of water into its constituent elements?? I know it can also be done by electrolysis but i want to know what TEMPERATURE (or the extent, atleast)is required to break it...
If that temperature is very high (which i assume so), then does it mean that covalent bonds are stronger than ionic bonds (coz i hv always heard of breaking an ionic lattice but neva heard of breaking a water molecule... which means its quite difficult to do)

PS: please don't consider my mistake (if it is) using the word molecule for water instead of the word compound... I am not so sure about it...

 

[Ygggdrasil]

According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_decomposition), water does not begin to decompose into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas until heated to temperatures well over 2000ºC.