The United States Geological Survey has confirmed that a mid-afternoon rumble felt across the Dallas area was, in fact, a 3.5 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Irving.
Just last week the Dallas Observer, our sister paper to the north, reported that Dallas saw 27 earthquakes in 2014, many centered around the epicenter of Tuesday’s quake. In fact, December alone saw eight earthquakes centered in Irving. NBCDFW reports that researchers from Southern Methodist University are studying the Irving earthquakes in hopes of determining whether they’re induced — say, by oil and gas drilling or disposal wells — or if the quakes are just the result of natural fault lines in the area.
This article appears in Jan 1-7, 2015.