What holds the ocean back from coming on land?

Question

What holds the ocean back from coming on land?

Answer 1

Nothing really it is like a bowl of water the mean high tide land mass is what you could call the brim of the bowl,Any increase of water and the water overflows the rim and here comes a flood,

Answer 2

The gravitational pull of the moon causes tides so I'm guessing that the moon keeps the water where it is to a certain extent of coarse.

Answer 3

the  moon  and  gravity

Answer 4

Gravitational pull of the Earth forces the ocean water to keep its formation such that it is closest to a sphere, to minimize net potential energy. You need to apply external force such as wind or storm in order to change its shape (to take to land) as it always leads to higher state of the total system.

Answer 5

i think cause the land is higher than the ocean

Answer 6

Gravity. Water flows downward, from high places to low places.

Answer 7

Gravity, picture it this way, the entire planet is waterless, water is added throughout the world evenly by precipitation (rain), the water hits the land and then slides to the lowest areas possible.

Answer 8

Gravity and the pull of the moon

Answer 9

Nothing. Land has a higher elevation than the sea floor, so the ocean sits in the oceanic basins the same way that a puddle sits in a pothole. The amount of water in the ocean generally stays the same, with the water added from rivers being balanced by the amount of water evaporated off by the sun.

But if more water was added to the ocean, from melting ice caps or from an external source, then the ocean level would rise and cover a bit more of the some of the land. The oceans are actually already quite high, and a significant part of all the continents today are actually underwater, in what we call the continental shelf. You can see that is this map: http://www.planete-energies.com/getMediu...