Ralphie's Lab on Reuters and CNN.com

[Ralphie]

Hi Alex,

To answer your question and those of others, it is very expensive and requires lots of specialized gear to keep these animals alive. We've worked with engineers to design titanium pressure vessels that can withstand the extremely high pressures that these creatures experience (approaching 4,000 pounds per square inch). To put this in perspective, that's like balancing a Honda Accord or half of a Hummer over a one inch square area on your head. In addition, we have to also add the chemicals normally found in these environments, including hydrogen sulfide, oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Some of the animals that live at these vents can tolerate pressure changes and we can transport them back to the lab for study. Others can not and we have to study them out at sea on research vessels.

Innerspaceman, you're right. the process by which these animals and bacteria make a living is called chemosynthesis (they convert chemicals from the geothermal activity of the vents to usable carbon compounds like sugars that can then be used for life). You get an A!