Layering in the Paleocene/Eocene boundary of the Millville core is drilling disturbance

In a study of a sediment core from the US Atlantic Coastal Plain (Ocean Drilling Program Site 174X-Millville), Wright and Schaller (1) claim to have resolved the onset of the Paleocene/Eocene carbon isotope excursion (CIE) across 13 y. Such a rapid change would require an enormous and instantaneous release of isotopically light carbon into the ocean/atmosphere, implicating comet impact. The claim rests on the interpretation of rhythmic layering in the sediment core as annual couplets but here it is proposed that they are an artifact of drilling disturbance.