The winger scored three times in 21 second-half minutes to draw level with Lomu's mark of 15 World Cup tries.
The Springboks ran in eight second-half tries in all to earn a bonus-point win at the Olympic Stadium.
South Africa top Pool B and will now play the loser of Saturday's Pool A decider between Australia and Wales.
A mixture of South Africa's ill-discipline and poor finishing kept the score down in the first half, while USA only made it into the Boks' 22 in the last minute of the half, despite enjoying plenty of possession.
Centre Damien de Allende scored his first international try before South Africa were awarded a penalty try as USA struggled at the scrum.
A different South Africa came out after the break as Habana scored almost from the restart, collecting a Fourie du Preez kick to go over in the corner.
Bismarck du Plessis and Francois Louw both crossed the line, before Habana scored two tries in two minutes to complete his hat-trick.
Louw scored his second with Jesse Kriel also getting on the scoresheet, before Lwazi Mvovo rounded off a dominant Springboks performance.
Habana had a subdued first half, with his only contribution of note seeing him clatter into Blaine Scully as the pair competed for a high ball.
But he came out firing in the second half and his hat-trick not only saw him equal New Zealand legend Lomu as the tournament's all-time leading try scorer, but also draw level with Australia's David Campese for joint second in the list of Test try scorers with 64.
The 32-year-old, a 2007 World Cup-winner with the Boks, scored 62 seconds into the second half for his 13th World Cup try.
He then went over unopposed in the 59th minute after a break by De Allende and swooped on a loose ball to dive over in the corner just two minutes later.
Habana could have broken All Black winger Lomu's record but a knock-on as he tried to collect another chip through denied him a fourth try on the night.
South Africa's World Cup campaign started in the worst possible way with that shock loss to Japan, but they recovered with a bonus point victory over Samoa and a comfortable win against Scotland.
If they are to win the tournament, they will be the first side to do so having lost a pool match.
Before the USA game, Boks coach Heyneke Meyer talked about his side "doing a Roger Bannister", citing the British runner who broke the four-minute mile barrier as an example of overcoming the impossible.
He also spoke about respecting their opponents but in the first half they showed signs of complacency and failed to pile the points on an under-strength USA, who had made 12 changes from their defeat by Scotland.
A rejuvenated and more clinical Springboks came out after the break - and eight tries in 40 minutes will certainly send out a message to the teams left in the competition.
South Africa: Le Roux, Habana, Kriel, de Allende, Mvovo, Pollard, du Preez, Mtawarira, B. du Plessis, Malherbe, Etzebeth, de Jager, Louw, Burger, Vermeulen.
Replacements: Serfontein for de Allende (60), Steyn for Pollard (56), Paige for du Preez (63), Nyakane for Mtawarira (56), Brits for B. du Plessis (56), du Toit for de Jager (63), Alberts for Burger (48).
Not Used: Oosthuizen.
USA: Scully, Thompson, Niua, A. Suniula, Test, S. Suniula,Kruger, Kilifi, Thiel, Baumann, Stanfill, Trouville, Barrett,Quill, Manoa.
Replacements: Wyles for Scully (70), Moeakiola for Kilifi (58),Taufetee for Thiel (72), Fenoglio for Trouville (70), McFarland for Barrett (57), Dolan for Manoa (48).
Not Used: Lamositele, Petri.
Attendance: 54,658
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)The 68-year-old was discovered in Fairisle Place in the Moray town at about 00:30 on Sunday.
He was taken to Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin but died later that day.
Police said inquiries were ongoing to establish how he sustained his injuries and the death was being treated as "unexplained".
Det Ch Insp Kevin Walker, who is leading the inquiry, said: "Our thoughts are obviously with this man's family at this sad time.
"Our inquiries are continuing to establish the exact circumstances leading up to his death and at this stage his injuries are still being treated as unexplained.
"Several members of the public have already assisted with our investigation and I would like to thank them for their help.
"I would still encourage anyone who saw a man fitting his description, however, to please contact police if you think you have information which could help."
The man, who had white hair with a greying beard, was wearing a checked shirt, blue jeans and a dark-coloured hooded top.Media playback is not supported on this device
Yu, 29, took the final three frames, closing with breaks of 66 and 70, for a 6-4 victory and a place in the last 32.
World champion Mark Selby held his nerve to see off world number 68 Daniel Wells 6-4 after trailing 4-3.
Scotland's three-time champion John Higgins came back from 3-2 down to beat Thailand's Noppon Saengkham 6-4.
Welshman Mark Williams eased past England's Andrew Higginson 6-2, while Matthew Stevens beat Michael White 6-4 in an all-Welsh contest.
England's Ali Carter beat Robbie Williams 6-2, but fellow Englishman Barry Hawkins went down 6-5 to Ireland's Fergal O'Brien, who made five centuries including three in a row at one stage.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"It was a battle," Selby told World Snooker.
"My focus dipped in and out. It is still the early stages of the tournament, I don't want to peak too soon."
Higgins won four of the last five frames to overcome Saengkham, ranked 69 places below him at 73 in the world.
"I dodged a bullet there, I'm just delighted to get through," said Higgins.
"I really did think I'd be heading up the road when I went 4-3 down. A lot of these boys are not frightened of top players any more. I felt as if the luck had ran out but the luck's still with me just now."
Sign up to My Sport to follow snooker news and reports on the BBC app.
Media playback is not supported on this deviceNigel Farage is wondering why, as Jonathan Portes has been pointing out, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures for migration to the UK from other EU countries is so much lower than the number of National Insurance numbers allocated to EU nationals.
According to the most recent comparable statistics, migration to the UK from the rest of the EU was 257,000 in the year to September 2015, but during the same period, 655,000 EU nationals registered for National Insurance numbers (Ninos).
Mr Farage smells a rat: "They are pulling the wool over our eyes. Ninos are a simple and clear reflection of the real numbers of people in this country, as without them you can neither legally work, nor claim benefits."
Now the government has promised to tell us how many of the Ninos issued are still active - in other words, how many of the EU citizens who registered are currently paying UK tax or claiming benefits.
But are Ninos a good measure of immigration?
There is no question that the official immigration figures, based on a survey taken at ports and airports, are imprecise, with the ONS 95% confident that the immigration figure is within plus or minus 23,000 of the true figure.
More importantly, though, the ONS figures only aim to measure long-term migration. They use the UN's definition of a long-term migrant as someone who moves country for a year or more.
When it comes to National Insurance numbers, on the other hand, there is no minimum stay in the UK. Everyone who wants to work in the UK must have a National Insurance number, even if they're only working in the country for a few weeks.
What's more, Ninos are unique to an individual, so once you've received one, it's yours forever. This means that not all those who HMRC reveal to be "active" will necessarily belong to people who have been in the country continuously since their number was issued - they could have left and returned.
The ONS statistics also include people who are not planning to work or claim benefits, such as children or non-working partners. These people don't need a Nino when they arrive, but can apply for one in the future. This means someone registering for a Nino could have arrived at any time, not necessarily in the year or quarter in question.
It's not hard to see how the two sets of figures would be different. The question is, should they vary this much, or is there a problem with the way the ONS currently gathers its data? HMRC has said it will work with the ONS to help reconcile all available sources of statistics, including Ninos, to ensure the figures are as accurate as possible.
With this process rumbling on - and the latest immigration and Nino statistics due out on 26 May - this issue is sure to keep providing fuel for the EU debate, coming just a month before the referendum.
Reality Check verdict: There are good reasons why the two numbers would be different, but they are strikingly far apart, and next month's figures showing how many of the numbers are active should help reconcile the two.
READ MORE: The facts behind claims in the EU debateLocal man, Joe McMinn, 28, was discovered in an area known as Devil's Den, near Goodwyns housing estate in Dorking, in the early hours of Easter Monday.
Richard Taylor, 21, of no fixed address, is due to appear at Guildford Magistrates Court later.
A post-mortem found Mr McMinn died of multiple stab wounds.The crew, from Camborne fire station in Cornwall, were called to a house in Fore Street, Barripper, at about 09:00 GMT.
The boy's parents contacted the fire brigade after they tried, but failed, to free him.
Cornwall Fire and Rescue said the crew used small tools to free the child, who was unharmed.The RT-branded box contains food packaged in laboratory bottles, such as Medonium honey - "med" being honey in Russian and Meldonium a performance-enhancing drugs taken by athletes.
There is also raspberry jam tagged "anabolic" in reference to steroids also banned in sports.
"Not everyone realised this was a humorous present from RT," the broadcaster said. It has consistently denied and ridiculed allegations of a state-sponsored doping programme in Russia.
One of the gift boxes was sent to Yulia Efimova, who won two swimming silver medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
A photo posted on Russia's leading social networking website VKontakte shows a smiling Efimova with test tubes and vials apparently containing food, such as jam, honey and condiments.
On its website, RT gave further details of its gift pack which it suggested had also been sent to other people.
The website carried a video from the Twitter account of blogger Evgeny Kozlov showing one of the kits being unpacked.
People from RT are "unbelievably creative", he said.
The kits also include cards said to be based on drawings by children from an orphanage.
"A New Year's card that you will never throw away," said Yulia Ostroukhova, apparently another recipient of the gift box.
"Very nice. Many thanks for the delicious Medonium, too," she said on Facebook.
It is not clear how many kits were produced or how many recipients there were.
In July, an investigation commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) said Russia's sports ministry "directed, controlled and oversaw" manipulation of urine samples provided by its athletes.
A number of Russian athletes were banned from competing at the Rio Olympics, but no blanket ban was imposed.
Another report later in the year alleged more than 1,000 Russians benefited from a doping cover-up between 2011 and 2015.
Russian officials have strongly denied there has been a state-sponsored doping programme.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.The company said PCs and tablets running the software would go on sale on 29 July, at which point the OS would also be offered as a free download to existing users.
The roll-out of the product for smartphones, Xbox games consoles and other kit will follow later.
One expert said the release could prove critical to the Microsoft's fortunes.
Windows 8 - the current iteration - has had a troubled life, with many deciding not to update to its touch-centric user interface.
The company has acknowledged the fact by returning some features dropped from the more popular Windows 7.
"We designed Windows 10 to create a new generation of Windows for the 1.5 billion people using Windows today in 190 countries around the world," wrote Terry Myerson, Microsoft's vice-president of operating systems, on its blog.
"Familiar, yet better than ever, Windows 10 brings back the Start menu you know and love."
He also highlighted new additions, including:
Many company watchers had not expected the launch of the product to happen until later in the year.
One analyst said the release was important as it might be "Microsoft's last chance" to crack the tablet market before Android and iOS became