Laboratory

any room or building that is especially built or equipped for undertaking scientific experiments, research or chemicals manufacture. The study of physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, geology and other subjects usually involves some work in a laboratory and each is equipped with special instruments.

A chemical laboratory typically contains balances for weighing samples, bottles of chemicals including dangerous acids, a vast array of glassware (test tubes, flasks etc.) and bunsen burners. The bunsen burner is a gas burner consisting of a small vertical tube with an adjustable air inlet at the base to control the flame. The flame produced by burning the hydrocarbon gas/air mix has an inner cone where carbon monoxide is formed and an outer fringe where it is burnt. When the gas is burnt completely the flame temperature is very high, around 1450ºC. The burner was invented by Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, a German scientist.

Taken from Dictionary of Science

Earthquake

the often violent movement of the earth along a fault or fault zone due to tectonic upheaval caused by the sudden release of stress that has built up over some time. The focus is the point at which the earthquake originates within the earth and earthquakes are classified by depth of focus: shallow -- less than 70 km; intermediate -- 70-300 km; deep -- more than 300 km. Attempts to predict earthquakes rely upon measurement of stress increases, but can so far be related only to an increasing risk of activity.

Taken from Dictionary of Science