Since the discovery of plate tectonics, the relative importance of driving forces of plate motion has been debated. Resolution of this issue has been hindered by uncertainties in estimates of basal traction, which controls the coupling between lithospheric plates and underlying mantle convection. Hotspot tracks preserve records of past plate motion and provide markers with which the relative motion between a plate's surface and underlying mantle regions may be examined. Here we show that the 115-140-Myr surface expression of the Great Meteor hotspot track in eastern North America is misaligned with respect to its location at 200 km depth, as inferred from plate-reconstruction models and seismic tomographic studies. The misalignment increases with age and is consistent with westward displacement of the base of the plate relative to its surface, at an average rate of 3.8 +/- 1.8 mm yr(-1). Here age-constrained 'piercing points' have enabled direct estimation of relative motion between the surface and underside of a plate. The relative displacement of the base is approximately parallel to seismic fast axes and calculated mantle flow, suggesting that asthenospheric flow may be deforming the lithospheric keel and exerting a driving force on this part of the North American plate.