The coal forests covered tropical Euramerica (Europe, eastern North America, northwesternmost Africa) and China. Eventually, climate change devastated these tropical rainforests. The so-called Carboniferous rainforest collapse was caused by a cooler drier climate which broke up the rainforest ecosystem. The cause of this change was mountain uplift, no doubt caused by the continental plates squeezing against each other. During most of the rest of Carboniferous times, the coal forests were restricted to North America (such as the Appalachian and Illinois coal basins) and central Europe.