Naturally-occurring and ship-generated breaking waves in the ocean generate bubbles of a wide range of sizes. Of these, the smallest microbubbles persist for a long time and have a long-lasting impact on the oceanic environment. In order to investigate the formation of these microbubbles, high-fidelity simulations of each of the stages in this formation are performed. These simulations lend credence to a model pathway for the birth of these microbubbles, involving processes such as collisions between interfaces and air film entrapment.