The Hunter fracture zone is a sinistral (left-lateral) transform faulting fracture zone,[1] that to its south is part of a triple junction with the New Hebrides Trench, and the North Fiji Basin Central Spreading Ridge.

[3] This boundary area in the south-western part of the Hunter fracture zone is associated with hot subduction, and a unique range of volcanic geochemistry.

[4] The Hunter fracture zone is located to the south and southwest of Fiji and starts where the southern part of the New Hebrides Trench ends due to the increasing obliqueness of convergence lending to more strike slip faulting than subducting.

[5] However some earlier work has postulated that the fault structures around Suva on Fiji itself are related and different authors have defined the zone variably.

From 3 million years ago the southernmost Central Spreading Ridge of the North Fiji Basin propagated southward and has now intersected with the New Hebrides Trench and the Hunter fracture zone to form the current triple junction.