  The familiar process of bubbles generated via breaking waves in the ocean is
foundational to many natural and industrial applications. In this process,
large pockets of entrained gas are successively fragmented by the ambient
turbulence into smaller and smaller bubbles. The key question is how long it
takes for the bubbles to reach terminal sizes for a given system. Despite
decades of effort, the reported breakup time from multiple experiments differs
significantly. Here, to reconcile those results, rather than focusing on one
scale, we measure multiple timescales associated with the process through a
unique experiment that resolves bubbles' local deformation and curvature. The
results emphasize that the scale separation among various timescales is
controlled by the Weber number, similar to how the Reynolds number determines
the scale separation in single-phase turbulence, but shows a distinct
transition at a critical Weber number.
