The Dallas metropolitan area was rattled by no fewer than nine earthquakes in a span of 24 hours, the New York Daily News reported. The temblors were recorded in Irving, a suburb of Texas's third-largest city.

The earthquakes ranged in magnitude from 1.6 to 3.6, and no major damage or injuries were reported, according to Fox News.

The first, a magnitude of 2.3, hit at around 7:37 a.m. local time Tuesday near the site of the old Texas Stadium, once home of the Dallas Cowboys, .

"Actually, it was real scary, though," resident Marty Livingston said. "Everybody was sitting in their chair. All of a sudden, you start swaying backwards and forward, and, you know, for people here, that's the first time being in one. So that kind of freaked everybody out a little bit."

Earthquakes have become much more common in North Texas, which before 2008 had logged only a single reported temblor in the so-called Fort Worth Basin. Since then, more than 100 minor quakes have struck the area -- 25 of them since last October alone.

Southern Methodist University seismologist Dr. Brian Stump told Dallas Fox affiliate KDFW that disposed wastewater may be to blame for the uptick.

"When they recover the oil and gas ... there's water with that, and they have to separate the water, and then they have to dispose of the water," Stump explained. "Historically, it has shown that in some places that they've triggered small to moderate earthquakes."

The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the state's oil and gas industry, hired a seismologist last year to investigate the concerns, North Texas PBS station KERA reports.

U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Jana Pursley, meanwhile, said that Tuesday's temblors were the "largest since the earthquakes started happening there in the last year."

"It was harder than normal and lasted a little bit longer and rumbled, like everything -- the walls, the floor, it shook," resident Gloria Tinner said according to Fox News. "I want to know what's the cause of it. What's going on? Why's this happening? It shouldn't be happening here."

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