Eight giant craters with a depth of about 50 meters managed to keep scientists busy for over a decade, since their discovery in the Yamal and Gidan peninsulas in Siberia.
Now, a study that has recently appeared online for publication in a journal offers an explanation for the strange phenomenon.
We enlisted the help of Claude to learn about the fascinating phenomenon.
Researchers have proposed various theories over the years, including meteor impacts and natural gas explosions.
But the craters in question are unlike others caused by such factors.
Rather, it seems as if factors within the landscape itself enabled their formation.
What is unusual about them is their appearance in permafrost - a layer of soil whose temperature is always below 0 degrees Celsius.
According to estimates, in these peninsulas the forever-frozen soil layers, which are very thick compared to other places with such layers around the world, were formed more than 40,000 years ago.
The freezing of the topsoil trapped vast reserves of methane within ancient marine sediments beneath the ice.
Methane warms over time, causing the frozen layer to thaw from below, while climate change thaws it from above.
In places where the permafrost layer has become very thin, the accumulated gas pressure at its base can trigger a sudden collapse.
This "champagne effect" can cause clods of soil to "explode", leaving behind huge holes.
Smaller depressions around the large craters were likely formed by a shower of frozen soil ejected from these explosions.
The scientists estimate that there are other places where similar craters are going to appear in the future, or those that are filled with water and sediment over time.
The formation of such new craters could be the beginning of a chain reaction - because if they are indeed caused by an "explosion" of greenhouse gas reserves, when these gases are released into the atmosphere they will cause the acceleration of warming, which will accelerate the appearance of similar craters for the same reasons.
According to the guarantee, 1.9 billion tons of greenhouse gases lie beneath the Arctic ice cap.
As we have already reported, this worries scientists, as the melting of the glaciers could release these huge amounts and cause devastating effects.
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