It seems odd that with the massive amount of water we have on this planet that it just doesn’t cover the entire surface. Is there some physical reason that causes a certain amount of land to rise above the water? Is it because of the massive amount of force that water is able to exert on the plates?
Umm. Gravity
It seems odd to me that this seems odd to you. The reason the water doesn’t cover the entire surface is because there isn’t enough water to cover the entire surface.
There’s not very much water after all:
All of Earth's water in a single sphere! | U.S. Geological Survey).
There is more than enough if the surface was flatter. I am just wondering if water doesn’t play a bigger part in forming the land masses.
The Earth is already really, really flat…
Yes it is very flat relative to it’s diameter or mass, very flat actually.
Umm. Teutonic plates
???
I have no idea why this question suddenly popped up in my head as I have never even given it a thought before. I wish I could identify my question better.
Yeah, those. Good an answer as any. 
(Tectonic)
Does water exert downward pressure differently than earth?
Beowulff, thanks for the groovy link. Have you come across anything to describe the depth of water if the globe was molded to perfect spherical smoothness? A coat of thick paint?
Dan
Real estate lobbyists.
Or maybe Cruise ship lines?
Ports of call and all.
This is exactly what I find so fascinating that relative to the size of the earth these are very tiny amounts.
It’s been asked before:
Around 2.7km, or 8,860 feet.
Well, not by me, of you. Lazy booger me, could have googled that. Thick coat of paint. Thanks again.
Dan
The actual answer is plate tectonics and the deep convection driving it.
In a nutshell, the forces of separating and colliding plates are strong enough to push the rock surface higher than there’s enough water to cover everything. To some degree, once the plate motion process is producing both high and low spots, the water will tend to collect in the low spots which means the height of the high spots need not be quite so high.
There’s no reason in principal that the Earth couldn’t have so much surface water that the mountains were all submerged. But that’s just not the way this planet is equipped.
As to the idea of the weight of water flattening things out there are two points to be made:
- Because the water accumulates in the low spots, the water is pressing down there: on the low spots of the lithosphere. To the degree the surface is plastic, that will push rocks elsewhere up, not down. Toothpaste, meet tube.
- The density of ordinary rock is ~3 to 6x that of water. Water sitting on rock is heavy, but not nearly as heavy as the rock. Said another way, the main thing pushing the middle of a mountain down is the rock above it. Adding some water isn’t going to do much.
Have cited that myself on many occasions. Fantastic.
Would have to be a podium finish for the coolest single image on the ‘net.