Bianchini, StefanoMarconi, Elio2016-09-062016-09-062016https://openscience.sissa.it/handle/1963/35209We prove that if $u$ is the entropy solution to a scalar conservation law in one space dimension, then the entropy dissipation is a measure concentrated on countably many Lipschitz curves. This result is a consequence of a detailed analysis of the structure of the characteristics. In particular the characteristic curves are segments outside a countably 1-rectifiable set and the left and right traces of the solution exist in a $C^0$-sense up to the degeneracy due to the segments where $f''=0$. We prove also that the initial data is taken in a suitably strong sense and we give some counterexamples which show that these results are sharp.enPreprintMAT/05