The climate of a place is NOT affected by which of the following?

Correct — B. Climate is set by where a place sits and what surrounds it, not by what its soil is made of. Option (b) is the odd one out.

Location, latitude above all, fixes how much solar energy arrives. Relief — altitude and the line of mountain barriers — cools air with height and steers winds. Distance from the sea decides how maritime or how continental the temperature range is.

Soil runs the other way. It is formed by climate, parent rock, relief, organisms and time, so here it is an effect of climate, not a cause of it.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Location — Latitude decides the angle and the duration of incoming solar radiation, the first control on temperature anywhere. Location does affect climate, so it cannot be the answer.
• (c)
  Relief — Altitude lowers temperature as you climb, and mountain barriers force air to rise and shed rain on the windward side. Relief is a genuine control of climate.
• (d)
  Distance from the sea — The sea moderates temperature, so coasts have a small annual range and interiors a large one. That is continentality, and it is a real climatic influence.

Geography lists a small set of controls on the climate of a place: latitude, altitude, distance from the sea, relief, ocean currents, prevailing winds and pressure systems.

Soil is not on that list, and the direction of causation is the reason. Soil forms from parent rock under the action of climate, organisms, relief and time, so a laterite or a black soil is evidence about the climate of a place rather than an influence on it.

Key facts

• The main controls on the climate of a place are latitude, altitude, distance from the sea, relief, ocean currents and prevailing winds.
• Soil forms under the action of climate, parent rock, relief, organisms and time, so climate shapes soil rather than the reverse.
• Coastal places have a smaller annual temperature range than interiors, an effect called continentality.

Common traps

• Treating soil type as a climate control because soil and climate maps of India look alike.
• Reading 'relief' as relief from heat rather than as landform and elevation.

No directly related past PYQ was found.