I am fairly certain these are methane seeps. It needs to be examined for potential to seal them.

The article at the bottom is about the Mackenzie River Delta. The Arctic Ocean is beginning it's springtime and there are structures noted that hasn't been there before. I think these are underwater methane seeps breaking trough because the ice has melted to the point where they can be exposed now. The ice formations probably occurred as winter set in in the Arctic.

When examining the photo closely it is obvious there is no wildlife that poked a hole through the thinned ice. There are waves just above the structures and there are two additional structures in the lower left corner.

Gaseous methane doesn't always mix with water. So the chance there are methane seeps below the water/ice northwest of the Mackenzie River is very likely. There was probably ice covering the holes and trapped the gas under it, hence, the wavey lines above the larger structures with holes already in them. The wavey lines above them prove there was pressure behind the methane leaks. The water surrounding these seeps would freeze because of the cold temperatures.

This shows how far we are out of sync with Earth's warming trend that started with the Industrial Revolution. We should already have a technology available to find methane seeps and close them so long as it is not permafrost. These seeps should be addressed and closed if at all possible. The USA sealed the Deepwater Horizon hole into Earth, a similar technology should be exploded to seal these leaks.

April 23, 2018
By Rafi Letzter

NASA scientists (click here) flying over the Arctic earlier this month spotted strange shapes out the window, but they aren't sure what caused them.

Three holes dot the sea ice, seen from the window of a NASA aircraft in the photo above, taken April 14. They're clustered together, each surrounded by one or two radiating layers of ridged, textured ice, almost as if a batch of archery targets had melted and gone lopsided. All around them are bumpy formations that mean the ice is thin and relatively new, NASA said in a statement.

"We saw these sorta-circular features only for a few minutes today," mission scientist John Sonntag wrote from the field, according to NASA's statement. "I don't recall seeing this sort of thing elsewhere."...

It is very difficult to stop the degradation of the permafrost. It is too warm.

April 23, 2018
By Charles J. Hanly

Mackenzie River Delta, Northwest Territories (click here) - Only a squawk from a sandhill crane broke the Arctic silence — and a low gurgle of bubbles, a watery whisper of trouble repeated in countless spots around the polar world.

"On a calm day, you can see 20 or more 'seeps' out across this lake," said Canadian researcher Rob Bowen, sidling his small rubber boat up beside one of them. A tossed match would have set it ablaze.

"It's essentially pure methane."

Pure methane, gas bubbling up from underwater vents, escaping into northern skies, adds to the global warming gases accumulating in the atmosphere. And pure methane escaping in the massive amounts known to be locked in the Arctic permafrost and seabed would spell a climate catastrophe.

Is such an unlocking underway?...