What happened to cause this on the Earth's surface?

Question

A little information.. I was looking for something else on Google Earth when I came across an area that covers a quiet a huge area (200 miles squared or more) of Northern Kazakhstan and Russia that is pock marked with thousand and thousand of lakes most circular in shape  or tear drop shaped .  When you zoom in you can see the area is been farmed and there is evidence  of these lakes having been filled up. In the fields,  some are quite big according to Google tape measure over 3 miles shore to shore. While other might be classed more as a pond than a lake.  What caused this?  Is this a result of testing thousands of missiles?  Shelling from either WW1 or WW2.  Because to my uneducated eyes the area looks like a war zone with thousands of craters been filled in with water. Strange as it seem a question popped into my mind "What would an orbital bombardment look like on the planets surface and a length of time had passed?" This area would fit that profile. But that is a stupid explanation, there has to be another one. 

So my question is this.. What is this feature on the earth's surface. Is it a geological or man made? What caused this? 

If you have Google earth go to.  54" 23' 02, 57" N  67" 08' 23, 81"E and zoom in and out you will see what I mean.. 

For those of you who don't here is a map link just click the satellite image and use the controls to zoom in or out to see what I am getting at. Here is a town built on the edge of one such lake and the surrounding area is pock marked with smaller ones. 

http://www.collinsmaps.com/maps/Kazakhstan/Severnyy-Kazakhstan/Presnovka/P920394.00.aspx
 
thank you to those who actually bother to take a look and try to answer my question in advance.

Punk Rock and Minerals · Accepted Answer

I looked at your map, and though I am not familiar with Kazahkstan, it looks like that region is pockmarked with sinkholes
water dissolves the limestone bedrock, and the roof eventually caves in leaving the sinkhole, a high water table woud account for them to be filled with water

northern Florida has  similar features

to comment on the above answer, I initially thought glaciers might have been a culprt as well, but I did a quic check and found out that they did not go that far south in Central Asia, meaning that those were not  glacial kettle ponds, like the ones that are common in Minnesota

Roger K · Answer

Even the mot powerful artillery shell or bombs could never create a crater 3 miles across. Nuclear weapons are detonated before they hit the ground for maximum blast wave affect. Underground tests also do not make a crater anywhere close to that size.

Geological would be my guess - sink holes, from soil subsidence or mining if there is any in that region. Glaciers can do a lot of odd things to terrain. There are many odd formations created by their actions.

Zardoz · Answer

Except for the undeveloped drainage, I don't find any indicators of past glacial activity. No drumlins, no eskers, no whatever…

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What happened to cause this on the Earth's surface?

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