has been displaced by the ice feature and remobilized into side berms and front mound ahead of the ice-seabed interface. Zone 2 is where the soil undergoes some displacement. In Zone 3, little or no displacement takes place, but stresses of an elastic nature are transmitted from the zone above. Arctic offshore oil & gas The area north of the Arctic Circle may hold a significant amount of undiscovered oil and gas, up to 13% and 30%, respectively, according to the USGS. This resource probably lies in continental shelves at water depths below , which makes up about one third of that area. Also, more than 400 oil and gas fields had been identified up to 2007, most of them in Northern Russia and on the North Slope of Alaska. A challenge for offshore engineering Access poses a challenge. An offshore production scheme necessarily aims for safe and economical operation throughout the year and the full lifespan of the project. Offshore production developments often consist of installations on the seabed itself, away from sea surface hazards (wind, waves, ice). In shallower waters, the production platform may rest directly on the seabed. Either way, if these installations include a submarine pipeline to deliver this resource to the shoreline, a substantial portion of its length could be exposed to gouging events. Protecting submarine pipelines from gouging events According to recent reviews on the subject, adequate protection against gouging activity may be achieved through pipeline burial. Placing the pipeline in Zone 3 would be the safest option, but the costs for this option are deemed prohibitive. Instead, current design philosophy envisages pipe location within Zone 2, which is still below the gouge depth, but where the soil is expected to move as a result of a gouging event above it. This implies that the pipeline must undergo a certain amount of bending and consequent deformation, or strain, of the pipeline wall. For the currently operating North Star production site, “[t]he minimum pipeline depth of cover (original undisturbed seabed to top of pipe) to resist ice keel loads was calculated based on limit state design procedures for pipe bending”. For that particular site, “ seabed soil displacements beneath the maximum ice keel gouge depth (3.5 ft) yielded a 7-ft minimum depth of cover for pipe bending strains up to 1.4%”. This design philosophy must contend with at least three sources of uncertainty: The maximum