ByKatie Hunt, CNN

Updated 4:11 AM ET, Wed February 17, 2021

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/17/world/siberia-craters-arctic-climate-change-scn/index.html

(CNN)Themassive craterappeared violently and explosively in the Siberian tundra last year — a powerful blowout of methane gas throwing ice and rock hundreds of feet away and leaving a gaping circular scar in the empty and eerie landscape.It was the 17th hole to appear in the remote Yamal and Gyda peninsulas in the Russian Arctic since the first was spotted in 2013, mystifying scientists. The craters arethought to be linked to climate change. 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…