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A small earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale has hit Cumbria and surrounding counties. People have described hearing and feeling the earth moving "for well over a minute" at just after 2300 GMT.

It was felt in locations across Cumbria and in Lancashire, south-west Scotland, parts of Yorkshire, Northumberland, the Isle of Man and the north Midlands.

�鶹Լ�� News website readers have been getting in touch with their quake experiences. Here is a selection of their comments.

Your comments

At approximately 11 o'clock as I was getting ready to take my friend home I heard what sounded like a large lorry pull right up outside my home, or possibly a low flying aircraft. I looked out of the window and saw neither. About 15 seconds later it happened again. There was no tremors but it sounded from previous experience like an earthquake. Deborah Perry, Swadlincote, Derbyshire

I felt the house shake and glass canisters in the bathroom chinked together. The quake dislodged three of my bathroom tiles. Edwina Stone, Kendal, Cumbria

I was in bed at about 11pm when windows started shaking, then the house. My speakers on the wall also started to move. It lasted about 10 seconds. It was very scary, I didn't know what was happening. John Ronnie, south-west Scotland

We felt the ground shaking after initially hearing what we thought was a very large lorry approaching, then the floor started shaking and an small aftershock occurred a few seconds later! Carl Morgan, Barrow-in-furness

This felt very different to the series of Manchester quakes we felt when we lived in the city in the mid-90s. The Manchester ones felt like the building we were in suddenly dropped 3 inches. Tonight's quake in Cumbria felt like we wobbled for 20 or 30 seconds. All very peculiar. Andrew Lucas, Kendal

I heard a small rumble and felt the house shaking I thought it was one of my sisters jumping around upstairs. Gabriel Langford, Castle Douglas, Scotland

I woke up as my dogs woke up just before it happened. At 10.59pm there was a loud rumbling and then things started shaking slightly for over a minute or so. We live near Shap Quarry and I thought they were doing some midnight blasting as it was the same kind of shaking but when it lasted for more than a minute I realised it wasn't. McCall, Shap

I was in the kitchen and heard a very low rumbling like a tractor or snow ploughs going past but I looked out the window and saw nothing. Then I felt a quick vibration which lasted altogether one minute. I thought maybe the snow from the roof may have slid off. My father felt the house shake and his water next to him shake. Very weird and a bit scary. Many people on Facebook also said that they felt it in the Isle of Man. Hannah Simpson, Maughold Isle of Man

The tremor was also felt here on the Isle of Man, across the eastern coast. I thought it was a big snow plough going past outside. My Xmas tree shook and the cat went a bit crazy, trying to get into a cupboard. Other people thought it was the bin men or a low flying jet. My daughter saw her floor ripple. Vicky, Onchan, Isle of Man

I thought I was hallucinating when my computer chair trembled from the floor upwards. Then my partner came upstairs an hour later and told me there had been an earthquake. Before he could tell me the time it happened, I told him I had felt it and gave him the estimated time I felt it. I was right give or take five minutes. It was a definite vibrating wobble, no noise though. It was a very strange experience. Joyce Richardson, Gateshead - Tyne and Wear

It began as a low rumble, I thought it was a train or large machine on the road at first, but when the whole house began to shake I realised it could only be an earthquake or perhaps a large plane crash. Luckily it was an earthquake, it seemed to last a few seconds and was rather eerie to say the least. Anthony English, Tebay, Cumbria

Working at the West Cumberland Hospital this evening when the whole building shook. Kevin, Workington, Cumbria

We felt, and heard, a rumbling vibration which lasted about half a minute. It sounded at first like a very heavy vehicle going past. It increased in intensity, to the point where books shifted slightly on our bookshelves and timbers creaked, then stopped. We wondered if a ceiling had fallen down, or a mass of snow had slid down the roof, but there was no sign of either. Then the breaking news on TV revealed the true cause. Neil Hoyle, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland

Oh Wow! Was that an earthquake?

Did it really feel so bad?

Just how much did the ground shake

and are these reactions sad?

Some said it was five minutes long

when first news hit the air,

but now they've sang a different song

and changed their underwear?

You shouldn't get het up about a 3.6 or 7, that's not the sort that introduces you and me to "Heaven".

That distant muffled rumble lasted ten seconds, no more, until the tale went off the scale, lest it should be a bore.

Well I was sitting on the couch, by Dalton's snow-draped grass, I just thought I'd sat on some bubble-wrap and popped it with my... weight!

Danny Reynolds, Dalton in Furness, Cumbria