AbstractWe study the large time behavior of solutions of the one‐dimensional equations of elasticity, typically a nonconvex system of conservation laws. We show that solutions with compact initial support converge inL1to a superposition ofN‐waves, at algebraic rate. Likewise, we show that the perturbation expansion of weakly nonlinear geometric optics is uniformly valid to second order. Our analysis uses approximate scalar laws, together withL1stability of scalar solutions and decay in total variation of the wave sp