Drone photography, 3D modeling and artificial intelligence are helping to reveal their secrets.

"The new crater is uniquely well preserved, as surface water hadn't yet accumulated in the crater when we surveyed it, which allowed us to study a 'fresh' crater, untouched by degradation," said Evgeny Chuvilin, lead research scientist at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology's Center for Hydrocarbon Recovery in Moscow.

It was also the first time researchers have been able to fly a drone deep into a crater -- reaching 10 to 15 meters below ground, allowing them to capture the shape of the underground cavity where methane had built up.

Climate change

The drone took around 80 images, allowing the researchers to build a 3D model of the crater, which is 30 meters deep -- imagine three buses end to end.

Study author Igor Bogoyavlensky, of the Oil and Gas Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, served as the drone pilot and said he had to lie down on the edge of the 10-story deep crater and dangle his arms over the edge to control the drone.

Some experts estimate that soils in the permafrost region hold twice as much carbon as the atmosphere does, making the region extremely important in the fight against climate change.

"Climate change, of course, has an impact on the probability of gas blowout craters appearing in the Arctic permafrost," Chuvilin said.

With the use of satellite imagery, the researchers were also able to pinpoint when the crater formed.

To log changes in the Arctic landscape, and perhaps ultimately predict where the next blowout crater might occur, the researchers have devised an algorithm to quantify changes to features such as the height of mounds and the expansion or shrinking of lakes on the Yamal and Gyda peninsulas.

The scientists' model correctly predicted all seven craters that had been reported by scientists by 2017 and revealed the formation of three new ones.

"The craters and other abrupt changes occurring across the Arctic landscape are indicative of a rapidly warming and thawing Arctic, which can have severe consequences for Arctic residents and globally."