ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Forebulge

Imagine a big pile of sand on the beach. Now imagine that the sand near the water is pushed up a little bit higher than the sand farther away from the water. This bump in the sand is called a forebulge.

The same thing can happen with big chunks of the Earth's crust, called tectonic plates. When two plates smash into each other, they can create a big mountain range. But before the mountains form, there is often a little bump in the land where the plates are pushing against each other. This bump is called a forebulge.

So basically, a forebulge is just a little bump in the land that happens before bigger changes like mountain ranges or ocean trenches are formed. It's like a preview of what's to come!