If you are talking about the tectonic plates, it will depend on the friction that you find in your way and the speed of creation of the plates, in the oceanic crust.

Look at Páll Halldórsson Plate velocity

This paper discusses the kinematics of Eurasia using a dynamic model. It discusses the forces involved. 

Warners et al 2012 : Lithosphere–mantle coupling and the dynamics of the Eurasian Plate

https://academic.oup.com/gji/article/189/3/1253/608641/Lithosphere-mantle-coupling-and-the-dynamics-of

Hi Sravanthi,

Your question is a tricky one to answer, simply because it is unclear to me if you are looking for an answer relating observable plate velocity to driving forces? Or if you are curious about it from a kinematic point of view?

case 1: Dynamic drivers: There is an interplay of gravitational potential energy (commonly referred as ridge push) from spreading centers with negative buoyancy of old/cold slabs (slab pull) which provide the basic driving force for plate motion. There is an added complexity because the fluid asthenosphere has enough momentum to drag the base of the plate with it, this is the mantle's viscous drag. This gives you a simplistic view of the large-scale forces that drives plates, and hence control plate motion. Plate velocity is simple the observable quantity.

case 2 : Kinematics: Now we come to the question of what exactly are plates? On earth (or any spherical-ish planet) you have to think about plate velocities in terms of rotations about euler poles. So, the velocities of plates and micro-plates are relative rotations about euler poles. So that implies that all plates are bounded by boundaries/faults that cut all the way into the lithosphere to define rigid micro-blocks that are free to rotate about fixed poles. So in this case, plate velocity is simply the point-wise linear velocity obtained from angular rotation of a rigid block on a spherical surface.

cheers,

Rishav

A specific plate velocity, described by an Euler vector, results from an equilibrium equation between active and passive torques exerted on a tectonic plate. An example of this equation can be found in:

Schettino, A. & Macchiavelli, C., 2016. Plate kinematics of the central Atlantic during the Oligocene and Early Miocene, Geophysical Journal International, 205, 395–413, DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggw022.

Passive torques arise from passive asthenosphere drag. Active torques are associated with 1. active asthenosphere drag when lateral changes of pressure occur in the upper mantle, 2. lateral changes in the age of the lithosphere, which generates the so-called ridge push, 3. slab pull when the tectonic plate is subducting beneath another plate.

You could also give a look at chapter 13 of my book Quantitative Plate Tectonics.

1. If we assume that the plates move on horizontal segments of convection cells, then the very process of convection in a solid mantle is difficult to imagine. It requires a very high energy and liquid state of the substance to be convected.

2. If we assume that the movement of plates occurs under the action of their repulsion from the spreading axes, then this process is also difficult to imagine. The transfer of the pushing force from the "spreading" zones to the "subduction" zones through thousands of kilometers of the oceanic plate without any signs of compression in the body of the slab is hardly possible.