Glaciologist Alexander Kizyakov is the man in question and has warned that the crater could soon leak all the remaining greenhouse gas it has left contained.

Working with 12 other researchers on the new study, which was published last month in the Geomorphology journal, they found that the crater has nearly reached bedrock, meaning we’re almost at the end of the pit’s downwards growth.

However, the professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia said that this doesn’t mean it’s done expanding.

“Expansion along the margins and upslope is expected,” he told Atlas Obscura.

“This lateral expansion is also limited by the proximity of bedrock, the top of which apparently rises to the saddle between the nearest mountains about 550 meters [1805 feet] uphill.”

Seeing as you can already see the ‘Gateway to Hell’ from space, signs that it is set to grow and cause more harm to the planet are not ideal.

The research team developed a 3D model of how the icy permafrost has given way in the past few decades, using data from several independent sources.

Data collected from satellites and drone flights were combined with permafrost and soil samples, with all data fed into the computer model.

It helped to predict the next stages of the geological structure and its melting permafrost so they can figure out what materials are being thawed and what is being released into the atmosphere.

Kizyakov spoke about the results to Popular Science, saying that it demonstrates ‘how dynamically the landforms in permafrost areas change’.