What is that helping, exactly? Most people have no idea what distinction that's drawing.

The Wikipedia article says an ETS event is imperceptible to humans. This was not imperceptible.

> Episodic tremor and slip (ETS) is a seismological phenomenon observed in some subduction zones that is characterized by non-earthquake seismic rumbling, or tremor, and slow slip along the plate interface.

New Jersey is nowhere near a subduction zone, or any plate boundary.

This is not the first time you've made a post like this - just because it's a weird pet peeve of yours does not mean you are right.

Not being familiar with the field, why would it be tremendously helpful to refer to it as a tremor instead of earthquake?

Tremendously helpful to the people who felt it? Or to geologists?

I can't find any source that matches what you're saying. "Tremor" seems to always be defined in terms of earthquakes, either as a synonym or a "very small earthquake", which wouldn't even apply here because this was relatively large and clearly perceptible to the average person.

For laypeople, "earthquake" = "shakey shakey".

No further distinction is needed, warranted, or desired.

This distinction (temblor or terremoto) is made in Chilean Spanish lexicon as far as I know, but might be a general feature of the Spanish language.

Well it seems we have to wait until Aunt Edna phones in and reports whether her ceramic collection survived unscathed.

A friend of mine in Manhattan felt his whole building shake. That's over 25 miles away. This is WAAAAY more than a tremor.

It says in the article that those are imperceptible to humans

Only if giant worms attack.

It was an earthquake.

Full stop.