The recent discovery of eight giant gas escape craters (GECs) on Russia's Yamal and Gydan peninsulas has challenged researchers for the past decade. Despite many proposed models, from meteor impacts to gas explosions, none provide a comprehensive explanation for why GECs are only found in this specific area. This study proposes a new general model for GEC formation in which local permafrost thinning is coupled to local geology, i.e. discrete conductive faults bring natural gas and heat into the underlying permafrost, deforming and melting the base, leading to the development of domal. gas and heat traps. Atmospheric warming results in further local thinning and eventual mechanical collapse. The morphology of GECs initially reflects concentric deformation above the base-permafrost domal structures, but after a short time they are masked by water and sediment fill and over time by peating and cannot be distinguished e.g. from thermokarst lakes. Thus, the actual number of GECs may greatly exceed the number already discovered. (Mats R. Ippach, Sebastian Westermann, Mohammad Nooraiepour)