[IronJack]

You're thinking of perchloroethane or perchloroethylene, both chlorinated organic solvents.

Or, in the old days, carbon tetrachloride.

It does make you wonder where all the halides came from though. Aside from salt, there aren't a lot of fixed inorganic halides on earth, certainly not in the form of perchlorates. Was Mars' atmosphere dominated by free molecular chlorine at some point, whereas Earth's was largely inert nitrogen, with some oxygen and carbon dioxide? That would tend to explain why Earth's inorganic salts tend to be carbonates and nitrates rather than halides ...

[Wilhelm Tell]

That is too bad. I was hoping, in my wildest dreams, that after many thousands of years Mars could be Terraformed.

[seowulf]

Carbon tet is a little harder on the liver than the others. Those old dry cleaners were just a little tougher than the younguns, I guess.

I also wonder where all of that extra oxygen came from to make the perchlorate and whether they might find some other strong oxidizers as well.