You left out a major factor as to how liquid water can exist on Mars.. Salinity.... You are awesome that water is water is water is water, and it in fact is not....
I guess you shouldn't have skipped those chemistry classes...
They had no bearing on my major, then or current, and they have little bearing on my life now other than fending off a forum troll. So I dispute your assertion that I shouldn't have tested out of (I didn't skip anything) chemistry.
That said, the idea that liquid brine might exist on the surface of Mars today is more realistic than what we earthlings think of when someone says the word "water". Since you're too lazy to provide a link to back up your claims, I'll do it for you:
http://earthsky.org/space/mars-might-have-flowing-salty-water-on-its-surface .
As an aside, my knowledge of high school chemistry is just fine for this, I simply wasn't aware that Mars was so salty. I never saw that mentioned until I just now googled for the phrase "salinity of water on mars". And I still require far more evidence, such as a pool of evaporated brine at the bottom of a depression, before I'm willing to believe. Its far more likely that the terrain features they described are made by briny glaciers than briny liquid.
Edit: Or even more likely than all other scenarios... its still all just made by wind erosion.
