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Where in the World is Mars' Water? (axios.com)
An anonymous reader shares an Axios report: In the beginning, Mars was a water world. But at some point in Mars' distant past, much of that water disappeared, leaving behind polar ice caps and a complex geology. Figuring out just where it went has been a major priority for scientists -- life as we know it can't exist without water, and any future settlers would need a steady supply. A new study, published Wednesday in Nature, suggests that much of what remains might in inaccessible. Some went into space, but even more of it may have sunk into the ground like a sponge, only to become bound up in minerals deep within the planet. "Mars, by virtue of its chemistry, was doomed from the start," study author Jon Wade, of Oxford University, tells Axios.
So, this would imply that we could never terraform Mars because it cannot maintain surface water.
We couldn't with today's technology, nor tomorrow's. Long term? Who knows. There is lots of water out in space. Many comets and asteroids contain bunches of it. If you could harvest them and send them to Mars- you could probably create temporary surface water... over the millennia it will sink into the planet again- you'd need to keep "topping it off". Losing water to space is a big problem too... you'd need to try and keep an atmosphere- again, you could probably create one, but need to keep "topping it off" over the millennia by pumping more gas out.
You can terraform Mars but it will revert back to it's current dead-state if you don't keep maintaining it. A bit like a field. You can plough a field and harvest wheat one year... the next it might self seed and have some coming back that you can harvest, the next a little less, the next a little less... eventually you're going to need to replough the field, rotate the crops, replant, etc, if you want that field to feed you.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Plus, geology is a much wider used and understood term. If I say I am working in the field of geology specializing in the mineral chemistry of Mercury, your average layman will understand me, but the term Hermeology might cause confusion.
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Do planetologists use the term "geology" when they're talking about another planet?
Technically, no, the proper term for the study of Mars planetary formation, mineral chemistry etc is areology.
It etymologically ought to be areology, but it turns out that having a different word for the geology of each planet was too cumbersome, so they are all lumped together as "Planetary geology."
https://scienceandtechnology.jpl.nasa.gov/research/research-topics-list/planetary-sciences/planetary-geology-and-geophysics
http://planetary-science.org/planetary-science-3/planetary-geology/
and geologists routinely use the term "Martian geology" and "geology of Mars"
https://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/science/goal3/
http://planetary-science.org/mars-research/surface-geology-of-mars/
https://www.exploratorium.edu/video/martian-geology-101
https://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/geol212/lectures/01.html
http://www.geoffreylandis.com