Texas Town Hit by 11 Small Earthquakes in 24 Hours

When most people think of earthquakes, they think of California, Japan and maybe Mexico.

But Texas?

Nearly a dozen small quakes have clustered near the town of Irving in north Texas in the past 24 hours, leaving cracks the size of the Lone Star state and rattling the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Is "fracking" to blame for earthquakes in Oklahoma?

Residents baffled by terrifying, loud booms in Oklahoma.

Watch: Newscaster live on TV when earthquake hits.

Texas officials worked on emergency plans today after two quakes with a 3.5 and 3.6 magnitude struck Tuesday afternoon, according to ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth. The last earthquake reportedly hit today at 9:57 a.m. with a magnitude of 2.7.

The temblors could be a rare, natural fluke, experts at the National Earthquake Center in Golden, Colorado, said.

They also said, however, that huge amounts of wastewater pumped deep underground - a byproduct of both hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," as well as other oil- and gas-extraction technologies - could also be the trigger. The Irving area has experienced oil and gas exploration.

Earthquakes can be triggered when the wastewater acts as a lubricant along underground fault lines that are already under stress, geophysicist Robert Williams of the United States Geological Survey said. "If you add fluids, you're just going to cause it to be a more slippery surface," Williams said.

That's what scientists believe is happening in the oil and gas boom towns of Oklahoma, now considered the most active earthquake state in the United States. A 4.0-magnitude earthquake struck the state as recently as today.

Williams said scientists were considering that the phenomena could be the start of something bigger. "The more smaller earthquakes you have," he said, "the more likely it is that you could have a larger, damaging quake."