Abstract: To get some insight into the response of the submarine pipelines crossing active strike-slip faults, the interacting soil-pipeline system is modeled on the platform of finite element software ABAQUS. Nonlinear material behavior and large strains and displacements for both pipelines and soils are considered. With the buckling and the fracture of the pipeline included, the paper employs the strain-based criterion to obtain the distribution of the displacement, stress and strain along the pipeline, and the critical displacement of pipeline under various conditions. Finally, suggestions on submarine pipeline design and operation are given based on the analysis.