A "constantly circulating, apparently steady-state" lava lake was observed during the 1969–1971 Mauna Ulu eruption of Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi.
[12] For many years, Kīlauea had two persistent lava lakes: one in the Halemaʻumaʻu vent cavity within the summit caldera, and another within the Puʻu ʻŌʻō cone located on the east rift zone of the volcano.
[13] In May 2018, both of these lava lakes disappeared as a result of increased activity in Kīlauea's east rift zone.
The lava lake at Halemaʻumaʻu returned in December 2020, after Kīlauea's first eruption in over two years.
Nyiragongo's lava lake has usually been the largest and most voluminous in recent history, reaching 700 meters wide in 1982,[15] although Masaya is believed to have hosted an even larger lava lake at the time of the Spanish conquest, being 1,000 meters wide in 1670.